“We do not want the Nuclear Power Plant. We want to live:” God of Life, Lead us to Justice and Peace (original) (raw)
I am IGNATIUS. I belong to the village Idinthikarai in Thirunelveli district in southern Tamil Nadu. Since a few years my family lives in the Casa Nagar Colony that was built as part of the Tsunami rehabilitation program. Though not many human lives were taken away, the tsunami gave us all a taste of what a natural disaster is. It took us all some time to get over the fear of living so close to the sea which behaved so strangely that day. But now the memory of that day is faded out by the new knowledge of a disaster that is looming over us and is going to be there every day. Our village and region are now famous for the upcoming Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP). Now two events loom loud in my mind. Let me share it with you all. Last year, one quiet peaceful windy night we were woken up by a loud unfamiliar sound that pierced our ears and shocked us out of bed. We ran out in fear and saw that many others had got out of their houses searching for the source of the sound. All eyes turned towards the Plant area which is just 1.5 km from where I stay. We realized that something was happening there. The noise subsided. We later came to know that that was a trial dummy run that was done in the Plant. If the memory of a sound can frighten and bring your life to a standstill, then we know what it means because we experienced it. The second event is the news we saw last March about the Japan Tsunami and the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant explosion. More than how and why it happened, we understand how weak the nuclear power plants are. Any small delay in getting the right amount of water, any human error in turning on or off a switch, a short tremor or shift in the earth, a wave from the nearby ocean that rushes in astray, a valve with a rusted nail in it can all start a disaster. And we realize that we are just 1.5 kms away from a disaster. Someone who came here to see us asked about how we spend our free time. I thought aloud with my friends Washington, Arnold, Josan, Riyas, Raja, Preston and Donald. It seems strange that for the past 358 days all we do when we have some time is to run to the compound of the Village Church where our mothers, sisters, aunts and grandparents are sitting as part of the struggle to stop the Power Plant. We have lost the urge to play. All we want is to know if the Power plant will be stopped. The other day someone asked me to sing a song. All I could remember were our slogans "We do not want the Power Plant. We want to live. When there are so many other sources of power generation, why go Nuclear? That too at the cost of our life?" I love to dance in tune with the beat of drums and good music. But now I dance with all my energy to the tune of songs like "Velkave Velkave Anukulaye ethirku makkal poraattam velkave…" It fills my mind with the determination that on no account should the plant be established here or anywhere in the world. If I can stop the plant with my legs and hands, I will keep on dancing forever so that the world will
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