Call for using Thar coal instead of ‘dangerous nuclear energy’

Karachi
Eminent physicist and academic Dr A H Nayyar has said he finds it very disconcerting that the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is running its affairs in a manner that is contrary to the letter and spirit of its own regulations.
He was speaking at a news conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Thursday afternoon.
He was flanked by prominent psychiatrist Prof S Haroon Ahmed, architect Arif Belgaumi, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) Executive Director Karamat Ali, human rights activist Saeed Baloch, Shehri leader Amber Alibhai and Urban Resource Centre leader Zahid Farooq.
Nayyar said the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the two proposed nuclear power plants near Karachi, a major project that could potentially pose grave risks to the citizens and environment of the city, showed that a proper public hearing regarding the mega project was being avoided.
He said that through a notice in newspapers published on April 11 Sepa had asked the public to file their comments by April 27, the day it was holding a public hearing.
Nayyar said: “Contrary to its practice in other cases, Sepa is holding the public hearing on this EIA not in a public place, or a place conveniently accessible to the public, but at the severely restricted premises of Kanupp at Hawkesbay. Holding a public hearing of the EIA of a project at the restricted premises of the project proponent is preposterous, and turns the hearing exercise into a farce.
“The Sepa’s notice of the public hearing published in a couple of newspapers asks the interested public to gather at two city points in the city from where the Atomic Energy Commission, the proponent of the project whose EIA is to be reviewed, will ferry the public to Kanupp and back.
“Clearly, the process of journeying to and fro from Kanupp will consume a better part of the day. Whatever time is left for the proceedings would be mostly taken up by presentations from the PAEC and its consultants, leaving hardly any time for comments from the public participants.”
Secondly, he said, the EIA for K2 and K3 submitted by the PAEC was of nearly 2,400 pages and full of technical details, yet Sepa had allowed only 16 days for the public to give comments on it. The time was too short even for experts, let alone a common citizen, he added.
Many of the claims made in the EIA need validation through technical studies, including computer simulations that cannot be done even by the best of experts in this short time. This fact has turned the public review of the EIA into an even bigger farce, he added.
“Pakistan’s nuclear establishment claims to closely follow the practices recommended by the International Atomic Energy Commission and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The latter organisation takes six months to a year in reviewing an EIA of a new power plant. This is the least that should be followed in Pakistan too,” Nayyar pointed out.
He said that due to its proximity to the city, the project exposed the city population to grave risks from a possible Chernobyl or Fukushima-like reactor accident, and hence its impacts needed to be studied most carefully. “In our first study, we have noticed serious flaws in the EIA, and if the EIA is approved in haste using unfair means, we see the project having potential to cause grave harm to the city population,” he said.
“We urge Sepa to give the citizens a time of at least three months for studying and making comments on the EIA of theK2-K3 reactors; and hold the public hearing of the EIA in an easily accessible public place.”
Psychiatrist Prof Haroon Ahmed said the nuclear reactors would pose health hazards too to the people as happened in other parts of the world.
Responding to a question, Nayyar said Kanupp had been working at 28 percent of its capacity, whereas usually such plants ran at 60 percent of their capacity.
“We are not anti-development, we are for development,” he told another questioner.
He said the alternative to nuclear energy was Thar coal. Then there was huge potential of wind and solar energy. He said wind energy was the most expanding form of energy across the globe and in China alone 23,000MW of electricity was being generated through wind energy.
Nayyar said the worst case scenario was a severe accident and since most of the time of the year wind blows from the designated site of K2-K3 towards Karachi it would have a catastrophic impact on the populace and the city’s environment.
He said the nuclear reactors would throw its warm water into the sea and since the area hosts endangered species such as green turtles, they would be hurt.
“It’s an irresponsible EIA,” he remarked. He said Karachi’s population in the EIA was stated as 15 million and reactors’ age was 60 years and one could image the population of the city after 60 years.
Karamat Ali said the Sindh government had not been consulted and the issue should have been discussed in the Sindh Assembly.