Update 1

The statement made by Sujoy Basu on 17 March 2011 has been supported by Surendra Gadekar (Anti-nuclear Activist), Sourin Bhattacharya (Ex. Head of the Department of Economics, Jadavpur University), Manisha Banerjee (Teacher and Political Activist), Shyamali Khastagir (Anti-nuclear Activist), Vinita Mansata (Earthcare Books), Santanu Chakroborty (Environment Activist), Mira Roy (Activist), Sankar Roy (Journalist), Abhijit Mitra (Professor, IIT Hydrabad), Kalyan Rudra (River Scientist), Sankar Sarkar (Activist), Sumanta Banerjee (Journalist), Jayanta K Das (Consultant Dermatologist, West Bank Hospital), Amiya Dev (Ex. Professor, Comperative Literature, Jadavpur University), Bankim Dutta (Anti-nuclear activist), Stephen Mikesell (Anthropologist).

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The points made by some signatories

1. While we make this demand we also urge that we rethink the issue of our energy demand. Any serious consideration of our present social life pattern would show that it involves such mindless profligacy that it is bound to be reflected in any meaningful social energy audit. If we have any regard for this planet earth and life here and now then we must restrain ourselves in our consumption, production and belligerent activities. We may also add that a nuclear world is a shamefully secretive and nontransparent world that Niels Bohr in those early days foresaw and sought to fight but failed. Let us even at this late hour do some justice to his memory. - Sourin Bhattacharya

2. “ … The Japanese politicians and corporations are pretty keen about nuclear power, even though Japan is the only country ever to have experienced the horrors of a nuclear holocaust. The Japanese are forbidden in their constitution from developing their own nuclear weapons. However, because they maintain huge stockpiles of reprocessed plutonium, they could within several weeks if they so decided build their own nuclear weapons. The Japanese people, on the other hand, are very allergic to anything nuclear, particularly after they experienced several very dangerous nuclear accidents in the last several years in their own nuclear facilities….” –Dr. Helen Caldicott in an interview with The Share Guide, Global Research, 12 March 2011 as sent by Manisha Mukherjee.

3. … Declare an immediate moratorium on all planned new nuclear reactors. There is everything to be gained by using the ‘precautionary principle’ and NOT allowing ourselves to be swayed by the vested interests who are not willing to seriously examine the fault lines about Nuclear Energy, Radiation and all the other hidden costs about which there is enough literature and evidence … – THE JAPANESE TRAGEDY-­ NUCLEAR DISASTER-­ LESSONS FOR INDIA, A Letter to the Indian Prime Minister from Admiral L. Ramdas (Retd.) on 15 March 2011 as sent by Vinita Mansata.

4. If plastics can be banned why not nuclear energy? – Sankar Sarkar

5. Japan Govt. has started to depopulate the area and that up to 30km radius. Please note that if we draw a circle of same radius and keep centre at Haripur, no less than 1.60 million people will be encompassed. – Kalyan Rudra

6. I was reluctant to be very frank in contesting the notion that Japan, unlike other countries including developed ones, has the best of safety measures. Prof Abhijit Mukhopadhyay, head, Electrical Engg., Jadavpur University, also a teacher of Japanese language and culture, too has this notion. Now I am to say that this notion is erroneous. Are we overestimating Japanese thoroughness?. The question is from Devashis Chatterjee, Ex-Sr Deputy Director General, GSI. (Japan Nuclear Disaster Caps Decades of Faked Reports, Accidents By Jason Clenfield - Mar 18, 2011), sent by Sankar Ray.

7. I think we should also come up with some concrete demands. First, amend the present Atomic Energy Act by making it more transparent and open to the public. The provision of secrecy in the Act prevents even parliament from seeking detailed information about the running of the nuclear plants. Two, opening up of the present nuclear plants to regular inspection by a team of non-government scientists and experts to check radiation and risks faced by employees and people living in the neighborhood. The present Atomic Energy Regulatory Board should be reconstituted on these lines. Three, a moratorium on further construction of nuclear plants. I strongly feel that a mass movement can and should be built on these demands. The catastrophe in Japan should alert public opinion in India, and the people should be ready to respond to these demands and join such a movement. – Sumanta Banerjee

8. Again it is to be mentioned that MNCs are at the verge of entering into the arena of N Power production in India. Certainly they will decrease  the safety standard in  many  folds  by compromising with the cost of investment in this regard. After all economic activities which  mainly deal with the production and  disposal of poison like Plutonium is counter productive and misuse of social labour and social production system. – Bankim Dutta