PM allays N-fears

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday sought to allay apprehensions over India's nuclear reactors and programmes following Japan's Fukushima Daichi crisis.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday sought to allay apprehensions over India's nuclear reactors and programmes following Japan's Fukushima Daichi crisis. He emphasized that the Indian people have to be convinced about the safety of the country's nuclear plant.

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Singh said that the safety of India's nuclear plants was "vitally important" and assured that all future reactors built in the country will have to be certified by the regulatory authority for safety standards. This will also apply to reactors and technologies imported from abroad.

"The tragedy at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant in Japan has raised world-wide concerns about the safety of nuclear energy as a source of power. It is vitally important to address these concerns," Singh said at a function after conferring the Department of Atomic Energy's Lifetime Achievement Awards 2009.

He assured that the government would take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of plants while he himself has directed a technical review of all safety systems of nuclear power plants.

The government also plans to strengthen the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and make it a truly autonomous and independent regulatory authority.

"We will ensure that it is of the highest and the best international standards," Singh said.

The Prime Minister called for "greater openness and transparency" in the decision-making processes relating to the nuclear energy programme and improve the capacity to respond to the public desire to be kept informed about them.