Why Indian Government is after Kudankulam plant?

Why Indian Government is after Kudankulam plant?:

My dad is a Nuclear Scientist and I happened to ask him the exact same question a little while ago. I'll share whatever little I could understand from what he said.

Let's face it. India is a developing nation struggling to fulfill its energy demands. As of December 2011, 300 million Indians had no access to electricity. That, my friend, is more than 5 times of the whole population of France and more than 2.5 times the population of Japan. 

France has 78.8%[1] dependence on Nuclear Power plants for their electricity generation. Japan has 26.9%[2] dependence for the same. On the other hand, India has mere 2.9% dependence on Nuclear Power plants.

The point I am trying to make here is that -

1. You are comparing India with nations almost self sufficient in Electricity generation
2. These countries are over-reliant on Nuclear Energy, and would prefer switching to renewable forms of energy, which are naturally much more expensive as compared to Nuclear or other conventional forms. All countries have to inevitably switch towards more reliance on these forms sooner or later.
3. India, on the other hand is under-reliant on Nuclear Energy, and needs to prioritize bridging of the electricity deficit first. We are exploring renewable forms but we need to maintain a balance and keep economics in mind to bridge the gap.

Agreed, using Nuclear Energy generation runs a risk of higher damages in case of an accident as compared to other forms. But, there is always a trade off. In this case, we simply are not developed enough to move completely towards using renewable forms yet. 

Moreover, the decision made by countries like Japan and France has a lot to do with the public sentiment. There have been widespread protests in both the cases, invoking this change, which is clearly not the case in India.

On a side note, Nuclear Energy causes minimal air pollution and in fact is responsible for extremely low (around 1/10th as compared to other EU nations) CO2 emmisions in France. It also is really inexpensive in terms of running costs.