The discovery of at least nine very powerful Cobalt-60 sources of nuclear radiation, which have fatally infected five persons in a West Delhi industrial area, has sent shock waves among the local population as well as nuclear establishment in India. Experts fear that many more people might have been exposed to strong radiation and would be in need of immediate medical attention.
According to media reports, panic gripped Mayapuri industrial locality after news broke out that exposure to a ‘mysterious shining object’ had resulted into emergence of strange symptoms in the owner of a scrap shop who was admitted to hospital on April 4.
India’s scientific community was alerted once the doctors diagnosed symptoms as a result of exposure to strong doses of nuclear radiation.
Nuclear and medical experts from Bhabha Atomic Research Center and the Narora Atomic Power Plant in Uttar Pradesh were rushed to the site to scan the area and help doctors confirm the diagnosis.
Cobalt-60, a radioactive isotope of Cobalt was confirmed as the source of radiation.
According to the experts this is not the first incident where radioactive material has found its way to unauthorized places in India raising the specter of it being used in nuclear terrorism. Security at Indian nuclear facilities has been breached time and again when nuclear material was stolen from nuclear installations. As late as Nov 2000 Indian police seized 57 pounds of Uranium and arrested two persons for illicit trafficking of radioactive material.
Lack of security at the Indian nuclear plants was underscored recently when on Nov 25 2009 some rogue elements at the Kaiga Atomic Power Station in Karnataka, laced the drinking water with Tritium , contaminating at least 90 employees.
Death of a nuclear scientist under mysterious circumstances at Kaiga in Jun 2009 has further raised the issue of security of personnel at the highly sensitive nuclear reactors of India , particularly those chosen to remain outside of the IAEA scrutiny.
The discovery of clandestine radioactive material in Delhi only serves to highlight the poor state of affairs at the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), the authority for controlling the security of radioactive material in India, say analysts.
There are no doubts in the importance and utility of nuclear power but it requires a responsible attitude from the authorities concerned with this sector. Any irresponsibility and lack of attention can create havoc like Chernobyl. Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear reactor accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union).It resulted in a severe release of radioactivity following a massive power excursion that destroyed the reactor. Most deaths from the accident were caused by radiation poisoning. 56 direct deaths occurred whereas 800,000 suffered radiation exposure leading to cancer related deaths. The radioactive release of the Chernobyl event is claimed to be 300 or 400 times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The radioactivity released at Chernobyl tended to be more long lived than that released by a bomb detonation. So even without using atomic bomb this technology can eliminate thousands of people through radiation exposure.
Although India is very enthusiastic for expansion of its nuclear programme, yet it hasn’t taken strict measures to safeguard its nuclear installations and facilities. Consequently, poor record of nuclear safety resulted in various unpleasant incidents. Recently, more than 90 employees of the Kaiga nuclear power station situated at Kaiga in Uttar Kannada district in Karnataka, were affected due to high radiation levels when a water cooler for supplying water for the employees was contaminated with tritiated water.
B. Bhattacharjee, a member of the National Disaster Management Authority, said someone had inserted contaminated water into water cooler. Top officials with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited blamed the incident on ‘an insider’s mischief’. Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar blamed the sabotage on “an insider who has played mischief”. Kakodkar said security was “fool-proof” and there was no chance of an outsider gaining access to the station. Ironically, the fool proof security of Kakodkar can be judged from the fact that there were no video cameras there to catch who did the mischief. In a nuclear plant it is not easy to take radioactive material outside the controlled area because strict radioactive monitoring is carried out. Even if we assume Bhattacharjee’s claim as right then it means that radioactive monitoring of India’s nuclear plants are not up to international standards. As radioactive contaminated water is not easily accessible to be mixed with drinking water so it seems to be a case of contaminated water leakage into drinking water. If it is a case of ‘insider mischief’ as is called by plant authorities then there are chances of insiders going to rector building or spent fuel area and causing catastrophic events.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Dr. Sangamitra Gadekar from India’s anti-nuclear journal Anumukti says: ‘Another pet sentence from the nuclear establishment is that all such accidents are studied and their lessons learnt. In 1991 on July 27, something very similar took place at the heavy water plant run by the Department of Atomic Energy at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan’. In the late 1990s the country’s nuclear facilities recorded at least 134 mishaps, or what they termed “Safety Related Unusual Occurrences”. In 1998 the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board claimed that 28 of these incidents occurred in nine nuclear power stations, but none were serious. Five of these, however, including a fire, led to plant closures, and another in 1997 to the death of a scientist after exposure to poisonous gas at a heavy water plant in Andhra Pradesh state. In 1992 a major radioactive leak from ill-maintained pipelines near the Cirus and Dhruva reactor complex at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center near Mumbai was found to have caused severe soil contamination affecting people living nearby. Similarly, two to three tons of heavy water leaked out of an atomic reactor in western India on 5 August 1981.
Apart from these, India’s past record shows various kinds of security lapses in relation to various nuclear plants and the related radioactive material. Nuclear theft, smuggling of nuclear fuel and killing of scientists have become a regular feature of India’s nuclear plants and facilities. On 7 December 2009 Mumbai police arrested three men with unspecified amount of uranium. On 19 February 2008 Bihar Police seized around 4 Kg of uranium after they arrested a gang of smugglers near Nepal’s border. On 27 August 2001 the West Bengal policed arrested two men with more than 200 grams of semi-processed uranium. Intelligence reports suggested the existence of an active uranium smuggling racket in West Bengal. On 1 May 2000 Mumbai police seized 8.3 Kg of uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that the Indian police seized three uranium rods and arrested eight persons on charges of illicit trafficking of nuclear material on 13 November 2000. Earlier, on 7 November 2000, according to the IAEA, the Indian police had seized 57 pounds of uranium and arrested two men on charges of illicit trafficking of radioactive material. In July 1998 India’s CBI seized 8 Kg of nuclear material from three engineers in Chennai.
Based on data available from IAEA, India has reported several cases of stolen and lost radioactive material over the last few yeas. There have been twenty five reported cases of missing radioactive materials. Nearly 20,000 radioactive sources are used throughout India of which about 900 are particularly worrisome. These missed or stolen radioactive materials can be used by terrorists for making “Radiological Dispersion Devices”, which can create havoc. This shows that India’s Atomic Energy Commission has no control and proper record and monitoring of these radioactive materials. They have no proper equipment for the detection of these radioactive materials and to check their illicit trafficking at the border areas. This can be dangerous for the neighbouring countries as well.As far as the arena of smuggling of nuclear related equipment is concerned India is not behind anyone. On 26 January 2003 CNN pointed pointed out that Indian company, NEC Engineers Private Ltd. shipped 10 consignments to Iraq, containing highly sensitive equipments entailing titanium vessels and centrifugal pumps. Indian investigators acknowledged that the company falsified customs documents to get its shipments out of India. In February 2004 India’s Ambassador to Libya, Dinkar Srivastava revealed that New Delhi was investigating that retired Indian scientists could possibly be engaged in “high technology programs” for financial gains during employment in the Libyan government. In 2005 Indian scientists, Dr. Surendar and Y. S. R Prasad had been blacklisted by Washington due to their involvement in nuclear theft.
The Kaiga Plant officials told AFP that the employees had not suffered any ill effects and had returned to work. Anti-nuclear movement activists claim that the government is trying to downplay the severity of the incident. An examination of the safety record in India’s nuclear facilities reveals poor practices and routine accidents. Despite this record, claims about safe operation are sometimes made by the nuclear establishment in India. Kaiga accident raises several questions regarding safety of India’s nuclear plants. Just for face-saving, authorities of plant are saying that the accident was a result of mischief of an insider. Otherwise they have no proof of such an assertion. No video cameras were there to detect the original culprit. If we accept the premise that an insider was involved in the event then this raised suspicions about the very security of Indian plants. How can India justify its demands for more plants and related equipment when it is unable to secure the present ones? Similarly, India lacks loyal people eligible for working in the nuclear plants. So these people can help terrorists to get an access to Indian plants. India which always gives hype to the theory of nuclear material gettable by Taliban must do more to safeguard its own plants. Otherwise with a number of insurgent movements and terrorist organizations operating in India the chances of nuclear material falling into terrorist’s hands become much more plausible. Consequently, for time being Indian plants seem to be hazardous for the peace and security of South Asia. Under such circumstance it would not be wise on the part of Nuclear Suppliers Group and US to provide India with nuclear reactors and nuclear plant related materials.
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