HYDERABAD: Though there has been opposition to the proposed uranium mining in Lambapur-Peddagattu villages of Nalgonda district in Telangana, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has not abandoned plans to take up the project.

“There were some problems and resistance from the local public. We diverted our attention to other projects following this but we will pursue the Nalgonda project also,” Swapnesh Kumar Malhotra, head, public awareness division, department of atomic energy told The Times of India. He said since there have been political changes, the matter would also be taken up with the Telangana government.

Malhotra who spoke on “Health, safety and social issues” at the 25th annual conference of Indian Nuclear Society here on Wednesday recollected that when the public hearing on the uranium mining project took place in Nalgonda, he was beaten up by a woman who came to voice her concerns. “The police had to give me protection and I was now allowed to come on the stage,” he said. The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCCL) which was to taken up the mining put it on hold though the state government had given its nod in 2006 itsef.

With resistance to nuclear power projects building in the country because of the misconception that it would raise health issues, Malhotra said the DAE was taking interest in educating the public about the safety aspects of nuclear power projects.

“In fact, it is only through nuclear power projects that India can meet its power requirements. We have upgraded the safety at nuclear power plants,” he said adding that India had the technical expertise to store nuclear waste for 50 years. “There will be no safety issues,” he said. Moreover, any industry will have emergencies and having a crisis management in place for any eventuality is important.

Apart from directly holding meetings with the pubic, the DAE now plans to make full use of the social media to put out information about the safety aspects. Fifteen permanent information centres would also be opened.

Referring to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan on March 11, 2011, Malhotra said there was not a single radiation-related death because of the accident. However, following this, Germany took a decision against nuclear power plants by the year 2022. India, however, went ahead and commissioned four nuclear reactors. China has gone further ahead planning 27 nuclear reactors. More countries are also making a foray into nuclear.

“India’s power requirement as on today is 200 giga watts/hour. The demand will grow to 1,400 giga watts/hour in the next 25 years. The only way we can meet the demand is making use of nuclear energy,” Malhotra said. One giga watt hour is explained as one billion watt hours or 1,000 MW hours.

Pointing out Germany’s stance against continuing with nuclear plants, the senior official of DAE said it had been noticed that Germany was drawing more power from the European Grid. Ironically, most of the supply to the European Grid was coming from France which was generating power through nuclear power projects.