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India secretive about its poor nuclear safety record

the United States which singed a nuclear deal with New Delhi last year has been praising India as a responsible atomic actor

INDIA’S NUCLEAR SAFETY A GRAVE THREAT Pakistan Daily Dec 25, 2009 WHY WORLD IS OBLIVIOUS OF INDIAN NUCLEAR DANGERS Although responsible nuclear states have adopted strict measures at their nuclear plants so as to save the lives of their employees and the nearby population, yet India’s record of poor nuclear safety has surprised the international community in the era of ongoing nuclear age. In this regard, in the end of November, this year, more than 90 Indian workers suffered radiation due to contamination of drinking water at the Kaiga Atomic Power Station in Karnataka.In fact, this latest incident took place on the 25th of November, but it was on the 28th that the media got the story when many suffered persons were hospitalised, and it became impossible for New Delhi to conceal the tragedy……………….

Instead of admitting their faults and to improve the security of their atomic plants, both Indian Kindergarten affected scientists and high officials hastened to cover the incident in one way or the other. In this respect, some Indian scientists remarked that the affected employees did not use to “go into the actual reactor area, but work around it”, while Director of the Kaiga station, AM Gupta said that these workers had “no exposure to the reactor directly, it was surprising to see them with higher level of radiation.”

On the other hand, gravity of situation could be judged from the fact that Indian rulers immediately sent instructions to its officials and scientists to avoid giving any details to the media. In this context, The Nuclear Power Corporation, which runs Kaiga plant, did not reply to the media queries over the nuclear accident. Deputy Commissioner of Uttara Kannada, N S Channappa Gowda, while concealing the facts pointed out that no casualties or injuries were reported. Notably, Indian Atomic Energy Chairman, Anil Kodkar called the mishap at Kaiga an act of sabotage…………….

Meanwhile, India’s poor nuclear safety can be noted from the statement of Minister of state, Prithviraj Chavan who clarified that there were no video cameras there to catch who did the mischief, further saying that in future “the government would install cameras in all such areas.” Surprisingly, this statement made it clear that Indian other atomic plants are also without cameras.

Although Indian officials and scientists tried to hide the fatal leakage at the Kaiga plant through many contradictory statements, yet an internal probe by Nuclear Power Corporation indicated possibility of mischief by an insider who had deliberately added some heavy water containing tritium to the drinking water cooler. So it is a most alarming that anyone can cause any mischief at Indian any nuclear facility. This raises more questions regarding the poor safety of Indian all nuclear plants.

Nevertheless, Indian nuclear power installations have not been practising the right safety methods along with rigid security measures. The incident at Kaiga Atomic Power Station is not the first one, Indian past record shows various kinds of security lapses in relation to various nuclear plants and the related sensitive materials.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

it is regrettable that despite India’s poor record of nuclear safety, and violation of various international agreements, and its refusal to sign Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), CTBT and Additional Protocol with the IAEA, the United States which singed a nuclear deal with New Delhi last year has been praising India as a responsible atomic actor. So the right hour has come that the international community must take notice of the dangers posed by India’s poor nuclear safety.

INDIA’S NUCLEAR SAFETY A GRAVE THREAT | Pakistan Daily

December 25, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, uranium