The nuclear reactor plant was temporarily shut down after the coastal waves inundated the unit following Dec. 26 tsunami disaster.

Despite the repeated assurances by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India that the Kalpakkam unit was safe and there is no cause for worry, a sense of insecurity remains among workers and local residents.

According to the South Asian Community Center for Education and Research, at least 60 to 80 people were killed and more than 1,000 houses damaged at Kalpakkam, 50 miles south of Madras. The watery fury left behind a trail of debris across the camp us.

The heavy protection walls on the seashore simply disappeared without a trace, Indo Asian News Service reported.

The Kalpakkam Nuclear Power Station Casual Contract Laborers' Federation said that some 300 workers were missing from the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor site, whose foundation pit was flooded by the tsunami.

There are two Madras Atomic Power Station reactors and one test reactor for the Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research in operation at Kalpakkam. Besides 3,000 regular employees, at least 1,000 people are employed as contract laborers.

Scientists have some very tough question for the administration.

What will happen to the prototype fast breeder reactor stations, which have liquid sodium as coolant, if there is another inundation by a tsunami? The reprocessing plant holding glass-matted enriched waste is said to be just about 150 meters from the sea. Will it be safe if another tsunami strikes?

The Kalpakkam facility lost all contact after its telephone exchange was flooded Dec 26, the IANS reported.

"On Dec 26, the Madras Atomic Power Station looked like a desolate place with no power, no phones, no water, no security arrangement and no hindrance whatsoever for outsiders to enter any part of the plant," said S.P. Udaykumar of SACCER.

However, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India official S.K. Aggarwal said India's nuclear power plants are the safest in the world.

New Delhi had earlier said that tsunami water had made its way into the nuclear facility.

"Information reaching us suggests that facilities at Kalpakkam nuclear station may have been affected by the tidal waves," said a spokesman from the prime minister's office.

Not many workers are willing to return to the nuclear reactor plant, fearing it may be unsafe to work there.

The Kalpakkam Atomic Energy Employees' Association and other workers' unions plan to file a court case charging that there is "a serious lack of qualified technical personnel at critical positions of the MAPS reactors" and that this compromises the safety of the plant and the public, the IANS reported.

The Reactor Pressure Vessel for the Kudankulam Atomic Power Project, which is considered to be the heart of the nuclear power plant, has meanwhile safely arrived at the Tuticorin Port.

Aggarwal said that when the tsunami waves hit the Indian coastline, the shipment that was flagged off by the first week of last month from St Petersburg port in Russia was mid-sea. Immediately after hearing of the tsunami havoc, the Kudankulam project officials who made efforts to trace the exact location of the ship carrying the crucial equipment, found out that it was very near to the Tuticorin Port and was unaffected by the waves.

The impact of huge ocean waves, any possible threat due to collision of aircraft into the buildings where the nuclear core is located, effects of earthquakes and cyclones have been taken into account in the design features of the power plant, a government statement said.

Meanwhile, news reports say that India's pirated video market has been flooded with horrific videos and pictures of the tsunami survivors and victims. Similar videos are also being sold in Thailand and Indonesia for nearly $2 apiece.

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