nuclear-news

India’s unhealthy nuclear industry

The New nation 19 Oct 09 “……………….In India, health hazards from nuclear power plants have always been swept under the carpet. In 2007, physicist V Pugazhendhi of the Doctors for Safer Environment released a study on the incidence of autoimmune thyroid disease among women in and around Kalpakkam, where the prototype fast reactor is under construction. It showed the disease affected 24 per cent women within a radius of 5 km from the plant.

It reduced to 6 per cent within a 40 km radius and to 0.8 per cent in 400 km.Of the 5,000 people working at the plant site in Sadras village, very few are from Tamil Nadu, said Suresh Kumar, a resident of Sadras whose brother used to work at the site. People in the area are afraid of exposure to radiation.The reprocessing plant at the site segregates the spent fuel into plutonium and uranium, and radioactive waste is diluted for disposal in the sea.

A retired nuclear scientist from Kalpakkam, requesting anonymity, said uranium and plutonium, which need to be stored in secure underground repositories, are kept in temporary surface facilities at the site.

Health surveys conducted by physicist Surendra Gadekar between 1989 and 1991 at the Rawatbhata nuclear plant in Rajasthan showed high incidence of tumours, miscarriages, still births and congenital diseases. DAE denies radiation from nuclear plants is affecting people’s health.Several accidents have also occurred at nuclear plants. Six employees of the Kalpakkam reprocessing plant were exposed to high radiation due to a leak in a safety valve in 2003.

This could have led to a major accident. In 1993, failure of steam turbine blades caused a fire at the Narora plant in Uttar Pradesh. It could have partially melted the reactor core where fission takes place.

A UN report in 1993, found occupational hazard in nuclear plants in India was six to eight times the world average. A public interest petition demanding the disclosure of an Atomic Energy Regulatory Board’s report on the safety of nuclear power plants was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2004 under government pressure.

Given the risks, how desperately should India pursue nuclear energy?

The New Nation – Internet Edition

October 19, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, India, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive