Kudankulam row gets nasty with death threat to plant supreintendent

With the commissioning of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) due, an anonymous letter, addressed to the station director of the nuclear plant R S Sundar, has been received by officials in Tamil Nadu. The letter, which arrived in the Friday evening post contained a warning that Sundar would be eliminated if he went ahead with commissioning of the plant. The letter, written in Tamil, has been signed by "Kudankulam Makkal Nanban" (Friend of Kudankulam people).

"The three-tier security arrangement is only for the plant and not for the officials," warned the letter posted from Anna Salai in Chennai. It was sent just a day after Ratan Kumar Sinha, Atomic Energy Commission chairman said in a statement that the first 1000 MW unit of the Indo-Russian project would be commissioned in about two weeks.

Following an official complaint, Tirunelveli superintendent of police Vijayendra S Bidari asked Tamil Nadu police to file a case and initiate investigation into the matter.

The plant was initially scheduled for commissioning for Dec 2011,though officials postponed their plans citing massive protests by local people and fishermen of the region against the nuclear plant. PMANE activists, who held several protests, at different times claim that the nuclear plant could harm the safety of the people living in the vicinity of the plant.

The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project , meanwhile is already under a thick security blanket with protests continuing.

The over 500-day-long protest against the plant, spearheaded by People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy, over safety concerns has already delayed the commissioning of the plant, first scheduled for December 2011.