The government is gathering all resources to make the 9,900-MW Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Maharashtra ‘one of the most glorious atomic energy establishments’, Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Science & Technology, said here on Friday.

Heavy misconception “There are a lot of misgivings and we are looking at that plant very ambitiously, the entire atomic energy department is focussed on that,” he said at the 6{+t}{+h} National Conference on Nuclear Energy, according to a release by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.

The Minister said atomic energy is environment-friendly, climate-friendly and if “we are not able to convince our people and a plant like that in Jaitapur is still suffering from certain hiccups perhaps again, the fault lies with us for not being able to propagate the facts as vigorously and aggressively as we ought to have.”

He said a number of studies had proved that there is no extra risk or hazard in having an atomic energy establishment in the vicinity, adding that studies on the workers/scientists working in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and their periodic investigations had revealed that they had blood cells as fine as anybody else’s.

Areva partnership On France’s contribution to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India,’ mission, Singh said, “The kind of understanding that has been arrived between Areva and L&T (for Jaitapur) would enable us to come out with the most ambitious, totally indigenously developed reactor.”

RK Sinha, Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, said it is fundamental to address myths about nuclear power being too dangerous. “We need to convince the population at large before we are able to go any further,” he added

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