Mumbai: A Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) report has criticised the location of the Jaitapur nuclear power plant in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra as sitting on an earthquake zone even as the state government plans to hold a public discussion to clear the air for the proposed reactor.

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan plans to rope in atomic energy experts and representatives of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which will set up the project in collaboration with Areva, a French company, to dispel the “misinformation” created by activists at a public discussion in January. The project will have six 1650 MW reactors to be commissioned in a phased manner from 2018.

An impact assessment report by Mahesh Kamble, a social scientist at the Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management at the TISS, states that the project will have a “huge negative impact on social and environment development.” Local people who believe the project will harm their environment and livelihood are also concerned about the location of nuclear plants in a seismic area which could lead to a major catastrophe. Compiled after interaction with over 120 villagers, the report states that local people are worried that the government is hiding and misrepresenting facts since the region falls in a moderate to high severity earthquake zone as per a government notification. One of the villagers has said there was no response to queries under the Right to Information Act on the frequency and severity of seismic activities over the years.

However, the NPCIL claims, “The code set by Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) for site selection for setting up of nuclear power plant prescribes that there should not be any active geological fault within 5-km radius from the propose site of a nuclear power plant.” It also states that the Jaitapur site is in Zone-III and not in Zone-IV. Extensive studies “have found no active geological fault up to 30-km radius” from the plant, “thus validating that the site is not earthquake-prone.”

The TISS findings in the “Perception Matter-People’s Report-Social Impact Assessment of Jaitapur Madban Nuclear Power Plant” study has also indicated that the government subverted facts and called the fertile region as “barren.” The report has suggested that the government looks seriously at the reservations raised by the villagers against the project.