Version imprimableNational Alliance of People’s Movements - NAPM
Press Release
80th Anniversary of Hiroshima & Nagasaki must deepen our resistance and resolve to ensure a nuclear-free world order
10th August, 2025: Eighty years ago, on the mornings of 6th & 9th August, 1945, the world witnessed the catastrophic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over 200,000 civilians instantly and condemning generations to untold suffering. These horrors remain a stark reminder that nuclear technology, whether for weapons or energy, poses an existential threat to humanity and all life on Earth.
Yet, instead of learning from history, governments around the world, including ours, are deepening their dangerous nuclear path. Recent announcements to amend the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, (CLNDA) to open the sector to private companies and foreign investments mark a reckless and regressive step. These proposed changes seek to dilute Section 17(b) of the CLNDA, removing suppliers’ liability, and to privatise nuclear power operations. This is being packaged as a “clean energy transition” solution, but as has been exposed over decades, nuclear energy is neither safe, nor green, nor cost-effective.
NAPM strongly opposes these amendments and the ongoing nuclear expansion drive. These moves jeopardise the lives of millions, threaten fragile ecosystems, and trample the democratic rights of people whose lands and livelihoods will be destroyed for reactor projects. Across the country, fisher communities of Kudankulam, Jaitapur and Mithivirdi, mango cultivators of Konkan, and Adivasi communities in Chutka, Seoni and Mithi Virdi have stood firm against nuclear plants. They have resisted displacement, radiation risks, and the culture of secrecy and unaccountability that defines India’s nuclear establishment. These struggles will continue as farmers and workers are questioning and resisting the new considerations in Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar and Goa.
The government’s argument that small modular reactors (SMRs) are a ‘game changer’ is another false promise. SMRs are untested, unsafe, exorbitantly expensive, and shift the focus away from proven decentralised renewable energy alternatives. Nuclear energy will not solve the climate crisis; it creates new ones. It comes with a massive carbon footprint during mining, transportation, and construction. It leaves behind radioactive waste that remains deadly for thousands of years, for which there is no permanent solution.
Globally, the nuclear arms race is heating up, with the US-China rivalry, Iran-Israel-US tensions, and renewed India-Pakistan hostilities. Nuclear weapons are no longer a “deterrent” they are a ticking time bomb in a fractured geopolitical order. In such a scenario, expanding nuclear power at home and eroding liability protections is a dangerous and disastrous gamble with people’s lives and safety.
To summarise:
• Nuclear projects destroy ecosystems, forcibly displace communities, and violate constitutional protections like PESA, the Forest Rights Act and the right to life.
• They deepen economic inequality, burden the exchequer with subsidies, and expose millions to radiation risks.
• Amendments to liability laws protect corporations and abandon accountability, transferring all financial, environmental, and human costs to the people.
• Nuclear power is inherently unsafe and incompatible with climate justice.
On this solemn anniversary, NAPM calls upon:
• The Government of India to immediately withdraw proposed amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and CLNDA and stop all new nuclear projects.
• Parliamentarians to oppose these changes and uphold public safety over corporate profit.
• Judiciary and regulators to ensure public consultations, transparency, accountability, and environmental compliance in nuclear decision-making.
• People’s movements, unions, fisherfolk, farmers, students, and citizens to intensify their resistance against nuclear plants from Kudankulam to Chutka, Jaitapur to Cheemeni, Kerala and to defend our constitutional rights.
• Civil society, scientists, and energy experts to push for an energy transition rooted in decentralised, safe, renewable sources like solar, wind, etc that do not endanger lives, livelihoods or ecosystems, while ensuring a non-displacing approach.
Eighty years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the message is clear: Nuclear energy and nuclear weapons are two sides of the same destructive coin. Our fight is for life, dignity, and climate justice, not for a future built on radioactive ruins.
NO to Nuclear Expansion & Privatisation!
YES to Renewable, Decentralised, Just Energy Alternatives!
Issued by: National Alliance of People’s Movements
