Get radiation studies of thermal power done: Tribunal

The National Green Tribunal has asked the environment ministry to get nuclear radiation studies done before giving clearance to thermal power plants.Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Sep 26, 2011, 24:24:16 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The National Green Tribunal has asked the environment ministry to get nuclear radiation studies done before giving clearance to thermal power plants.

In an order issued this week, a bench of the tribunal headed by Justice CV Ramulu and Devendra Kumar Agrawal asked the ministry to conduct studies to measure impact of radiation from thermal power plants. Studies in India and abroad have shown that thermal power plants emit more radiation than nuclear plants.

The tribunal asked the ministry to get the study done by involving Bhabha Atomic Research Agency or any other recognised scientific institution, which deal with nuclear radiation related to fly ash generation in thermal plants.

The study should involve the cumulative effect of a number of thermal power project located in the area on human habitation, environment and ecology, the tribunal said.

“The study shall also take into consideration the health profile of residents within the affected area,” the order said.

The judgment was pronounced in a case filed by Krishi Vigyan Agrogya Sanstha against the ministry related to environment clearance granted to the proposed 2,000 MW expansion of coal-based thermal unit in Nagpur.

The ministry has also been asked to make nuclear radiation impact studies a part of the terms of reference of in-principle approval to thermal power plants.

In another direction, the tribunal told the ministry to issue national standards for nuclear radiation from thermal power plants within a year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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