'Jaitapur Site Highly Prone to Quakes'

Indian Express: Mumbai: Friday, 01 May 2015.

Activists are gearing up to intensify their protest against the proposed Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project in Maharashtra after coming to know that the region is highly prone to earthquakes.

Environment activist Girish Raut obtained the information about the project site’s seismic activity under the Right to Information Act (RTI) which mentions that a total of 93 earthquakes were recorded at the project site in the last 20 years, one of which measured 6.2 on the Richter scale.

“The village Madban, where the reactors are proposed to be set up, falls in the third category of seismic zone. The authorities had concealed the number of earthquakes registered there from us till now and released the data only after we approached the Chief Information Commissioner in Delhi,” Raut said.

Another activist B G Kolse-Patil, a former Justice with the Bombay High Court, pointed out that Madban falls in the geographical fault line.

“Cracks in land is common there because of the fault line. As a result one can find hot springs near Madban. If cracks developed no nuclear reactor could remain safe there,” he said. The Centre has proposed six reactors of 1,650 MW each in the Jaitapur project.