Much heat was generated when anti-nuclear protestors raised concerns over the safety of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) at an interactive session on “Safety of Kudankulam Reactors – The Real Facts” here on Thursday with former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission M.R. Srinivasan. At the session organised by Kural, Rotary Club of Coimbatore and Rotary Club of Coimbatore Central, a couple of persons supporting the protest against the project questioned the selection of the site for the KKNPP. R. Ramesh, a medical practitioner and a geologist, said that the project could not be commissioned without obtaining reports of the volcanic hazard study and tsunami study of the site. In response, Mr. Srinivasan said that these issues could be taken up and the body concerned “will have it reviewed.” Radiation Biologist V.T. Padmanabhan spoke on water problems that would hamper the cooling system of the plant. This was after Mr. Srinivasan had explained the design of KKNPP that included improved third generation reactors (compared to the first generation reactors of Fukushima in Japan), a passive heat removal system and a core catcher that “could prevent a Fukushima.” “The design provisions ensure that nuclear fuel cooling is assured at all times and that radio activity is contained within the containment,” he said. Earlier, explaining why the KKNPP should be commissioned at the earliest, the former Chairman said that though countries had taken lessons from Fukushima, all of them had not halted the commissioning of nuclear power plants. There were 433 reactors operating in 30 countries and 65 were under construction. Pointing to the demands of protestors that solar and wind energy be harnessed as alternative sources of energy, Mr. Srinivasan said that since both were diffuse sources, they were associated with high costs. Also, solar energy was not available in the nights and the wind blew only 25 per cent of the time. Reiterating that the features of the project assured that a Fukushima could not occur at Kudankulam, Mr. Srinivasan said the health of humans and marine life would not suffer any adverse effects and the dangers perceived by the locals were “imaginary.” Citing examples of Tarapur and Kalpakkam, he said there had been no ill-effects in the health of people and marine life there. “All consumables are compared with the baseline data collected before the plant went into operation. The radioactivity levels that have been observed so far in Tarapur and Kalpakkan are well below permissible international limits. There is also a reduction in radioactivity levels due to use of better work practices,” he said. He, however, agreed that the agitation by the locals was to a large extent because of the poor outreach by the Government and inadequate awareness creation by scientists.