None of the action points advocated by Dr Kalam have anything to do with nuclear energy or the safety requirements for generating it. What he seems to have failed to address is the very source of concern on nuclear energy — fear. Not the kind of probabilistic risk that scientists think is hard for our country’s fishermen and fisherwomen to understand, but a rather palpable concern following the recent catastrophe in Japan. If the developed nation, which got burnt by the same nuclear energy barely 50 years ago, did not foresee Fukushima, what assurance are Kalam’s words to Koodankulam residents?
Technology, and indeed humanity, has progressed well by conquering fear and Kalam’s words sound chauvinistic towards the poor and mostly uneducated fisherpeople, who will bear the brunt of anything that goes wrong at KNPP. The Chola emperor that he talks about was just that — an emperor, and I am not sure even he would have gambled on a dam if a similar dam had burst somewhere else just a year before.
One mustn’t forget that Dr Kalam is a missile scientist, not a sociologist or a nuclear scientist. His mandate with the ISRO and DRDO involved developing systems that went high up in space, or hit a specified point on the earth by tracking a pre-defined projectile motion. His work in the field is exemplary and needs no elaboration. But he has never dealt with situations where his projects had any damaging threat to local communities, leave alone an ecosystem. His post-retirement lectures and writings involve the story of his own life, and his own teachings to the Indian youth. Clearly, the septuagenarian’s opinion of safety and community rehabilitation at a coastal nuclear plant can only be relied to that extent.
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