A car thrown against a tree by the waves in Kalpakkam. (Reuters)

New Delhi, Dec. 28: The government has ruled out the threat of radiation from the Kalpakkam nuclear power plant near Chennai after Sunday?s killer waves ripped through the area.

National security adviser J.N. Dixit assured the nation that the nuclear station was ?safe? after a review meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning.

Reports of possible radiation leaks had been circulating ever since it was known that water had entered the power station on Sunday morning. Residents had claimed that 10 scientists died within the Kalpakkam complex, leading to fears of radiation.

The Prime Minister himself was worried and called this morning?s meeting.

?The basic facilities of the reactor are safe and unaffected in any manner,? Dixit said. ?Both units are safe and there is no danger of any radiation.?

He added that the plant was now in ?safe shutdown mode?. There was general relief that the tsunamis had not triggered a nuclear disaster to add to the country?s woes.

Singh, however, was not taking any chances and asked for a daily briefing on the situation in Kalpakkam. He also instructed Anil Kakodkar, the Atomic Energy Commission chairman who inspected the plant yesterday, to stay on to monitor the situation.

Members of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board would reach Kalpakkam tomorrow to oversee the restarting of operations, Dixit said. The plant, he added, had to be shut down because of flooding to allow for draining and cleaning.

The assurance given by the highest authorities in the government notwithstanding, there are doubts among the residents in Tamil Nadu.

S.P. Udaykumar of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, an anti-nuclear group, said Kalpakkam authorities should come clean.

Kalpakkam scientists had claimed on Sunday that they switched off the reactors in time, in fact moments after they heard about the massive earthquake off the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.

?If that is the case, why did they not alert any other agency. They could have saved some lives if what they claim is true,? Udaykumar said, when contacted by telephone.