Amidst the hype over a nuclear renaissance in India, state-run Nuclear Power Corporationhas threatened to close down two units of the Tarapur Atomic Power Station on the grounds of safety and security.
The company, which has run these units since 1969, said that it can no longer tolerate warnings from some political parties that they will not allow regular maintenance and outages unless locals are hired.
Power from these units is supplied to Maharashtra and Gujarat at a paltry rate of 93 paise per unit. The Tarapur plant produces a total of 1,400 Mw power from its four units. The two units which the corporation has threatened to close account for 320 Mw.
NPC, which currently operates power plants with generation capacity of over 4,120 Mw, will be a major contributor to the proposed addition of 63,000 Mw in nuclear power capacity by 2032.
The plants' director, RK Gargye, told Business Standard that the locals have warned that they would not allow the company to carry out planned outage of the first and second units from October 10 as they want jobs. "The annual planned outage is quite essential as we have to replace uranium and carry out maintenance of these units. These units, which had a 30-year life, have been in operation for over 41 years due to improved efficiency. We want to run these units, which are boiling water reactors procured from the US, for another 15 years," he said.
NPC does not require daily wage earners during outages since it has roped in a contractor from 2002.
Similarly, the company now needs only 20 days compared to 40 to 60 days earlier for completion of the outage, he said. NPC employs 600 persons in units 1 and 2, while units 3 and 4 have a similar number of employees.
Gargye said some locals supported by various political parties want to be provided permanent jobs as against the current practice of daily wage earners.
"The management has expressed its inability to do so as it cannot compromise on the quality and safety standards. Still, they are adamant on their demands on the grounds that they deserve permanent jobs for being project affected persons. However, the management is quite clear that they are not PAPs as the land was acquired in 1964-65 and thereafter settlements were made according to the prevailing rules and regulations," he said.
Gargye said the company is spending Rs 40 lakh annually in the adjoining three or four villages to provide basic civic amenities as well as giving various materials to schools.
Baliram Jadhav, the Member of Parliament from Palghar who had held a series of meetings with NPC on the issue of jobs for locals, said he would continue to support the locals.
