Help stop the next Fukushima disaster

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Help stop the next Fukushima disaster

Help stop the next Fukushima disaster

Tell banks not to finance the Jaitapur nuclear power plant in India

Despite the nuclear disaster at Fukushima witnessed by the world, there are plans to build a major nuclear power station in a highly earthquake-prone region on the west coast of India. The Jaitapur nuclear plant can only be built with financing from banks like BNP Paribas and HSBC.

May 11 marks not only two months since the initial disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant - but is also the Annual General Meeting of BNP Paribas and HSBC's Strategy Day.

You can write to the boards of these international banks, asking them to help us stop this risky and unnecessary nuclear project in India.

Want to be sure they get your message?

Follow up your e-mail message with a phone call to your local BNP Paribas or HSBC office. We have talking points and phone numbers for you here. The more the banks hear your message the better!

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Dear board members of BNP Paribas & HSBC,

I am emailing you as a nuclear disaster continues to unfold at the Fukushima power plant, to express my serious concerns about your bank’s involvement in the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power station in India. In the context of Fukushima, this raises significant concerns since the proposed construction site is in a high-damage earthquake zone, and the reactor technology has the same inherent weakness as Fukushima: a dependence on active cooling to avoid meltdown, which is required even when the reactor is not operating or generating electricity. In Jaitapur, the Indian government and the utility are proposing the world’s largest nuclear installation, while no waste management plan has been submitted or is even under consideration. Nationally, India has no nuclear waste policy.

Further the proposed plant has raised many serious local issues in the context of environmental and social governance, including –

•	The EIA (Environment Impact Assessment) process is flawed as the authorities provided no response to the various questions raised by the public.
•	Of the approximately 2400 families who have to sell their land in order to build the plant - only 154 have sold or accepted the compensation so far. 
•	Local villagers are particularly concerned about the impact on their livelihoods - especially fisherman and farmers. 
•	The Alphonso mango – an iconic and valuable agricultural commodity - is exported from this region, and local producers are particularly concerned about the impact on this aspect of their livelihoods.
•	There have been violent confrontations between local authorities and those opposed to the construction of the plant, and local opposition to the plant is growing steadily stronger.

As a board member, you have a responsibility to your shareholders to ensure your investments meet the highest operational, safety and regulatory criteria. Given the above, Jaitapur clearly does not meet these requirements.

In this context, I am urging the board to instruct management to withdraw from the consortium funding this project, which is risky in both operational and reputational terms.

Thank you for your attention.

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By removing nuclear power from their investment portfolios, BNP Paribas and HSBC bank can be leaders in the clean and safe energy future. We need them to only invest in renewable and energy efficiency technologies.

*Why are we comparing Fukushima to Jaitapur?

Not only is the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant planned to be built on the coastline and in a high-risk earthquake area, but it would use similar light water reactor technology that vitally depends on active cooling for weeks, even after the reactor is stopped. Its design has some of the apparent weaknesses that make it vulnerable to the same problems that caused the Fukushima accident. As proposed, the project would be a whole fleet of very large reactors, that could lead to multiple failures and radiation releases, as the world has been witnessing in Fukushima.

For more information please see the briefing on the Jaitapur nuclear project.