Fukushima I nuclear power plant before the 2011 explosion. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dark days are ahead. A bright nuke future envisaged by the learned and the powerful, notwithstanding.

Looks like our policy-makers think those living in places like Koondankulam in Tamil Nadu, Jaitapur in Maharashtra do not know or, much less, understand what’s happening around the world.

The Fukushima incident is reflecting around us like a hall of mirrors. The government hasn’t probably realised; in fact, does not want to realise that the incident struck the raw strings of anxiety of the people just a year ago. They will not be convinced no matter who endorses it.

A nuclear future is a disturbing development. That is if you are ready to look at ‘development’ beyond and above the meaning it has acquired in the 20^th century: dams, river-linking, nuclear energy, genetic engineering, IPL, Antilla, so on and so forth.

In a vast country like ours with unmatched diversity, room for dissent is shrinking rapidly. The government is shutting out dissenting voices—the people living in and around the proposed nuclear sites, NGOs, environmental lawyers and activists—who are seeking a debate on this issue. In the absence of a thorough public debate on nuclear future, expressing one’s own safety concerns has become anti-development, even anti-democratic.

When this is the case, to hope that the government will care for the in-depth expert studies on how the thermal discharges from the nuclear plant will affect marine life is plain ludicrous.

Just as the nuclear future we will all be condemned to, whether we like it or not, the process with which we are pursuing the same is also absolutely unsettling.

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