By IANS,
New Delhi : Addressing growing concerns on nuclear safety was the focus as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh convened a high-level meeting Tuesday to review the current status of the nuclear power projecct at Jaitapur in Maharashtra.
The key decisions taken after the meeting, attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office V. Narayanasamy, Atomic Energy Commission chief Srikumar Banerjee and senior bureaucrats are:
* The government will introduce a bill in the next session of parliament to create an independent and autonomous Nuclear Regulatory Authority of India that will subsume the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).
* The initial results of the six safety review committees set up by the Indian government after the Fukushima accident in Japan will be made public. Action taken on previous safety reviews will be put in the pubic domain.
* The best available expertise will be tapped to ensure the highest levels of safety. The government will invite the Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assist in its own safety reviews and audit.
* Each reactor in Jaitapur will have its own stand-alone safety and operation systems.
* All reactors and technologies, whether indigenous or imported, will without exception meet the safety standards that are stipulated by the regulatory authorities and there will be complete transparency in the functioning of the nuclear power programme.
During the meeting, the prime minister was assured that “all efforts will be made to engage local communities and address their fears and concerns in a credible manner and that livelihoods of local fishermen and their families must continue to get the highest priority by the state government and the Nuclear Power Corportation of India Limited”.