Barely a month since the Kaiga Atomic Power Station accident that exposed 55 workers to excessive radiation, India had another nuclear related incident today. In Mumbai three people were arrested on charges of illegal possession of five kilograms of depleted uranium. Though it is unknown how they obtained the uranium, the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) has assured that the stolen uranium is not dangerous. D N Sharma, Head, Radiation Safety Systems Division, BARC told the DNA, “Depleted uranium has less U-235 (used in nuclear reactors) as compared to natural uranium. In the seized substance, this percentage is 0.2%,” and cannot be used to work as an explosive.
The Kaiga incident was termed as “an insider’s mischief” by Indian authorities. Today’s incident might be explained off as something similarly dubious. But the fact is that India needs to revisit the security of its nuclear operations. With aggressive plans to expand power generation through nuclear energy and nuclear deals with half a dozen countries, it is imperative that security at India’s nuclear installations is foolproof. Not only is it essential as a good business practice, but also for the security of the people and nation at large. Last month all nuclear installations across India were put on high security alert fearing potential terrorist attacks. The government had also asked the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) to review security measures at all stations. Minister of State for Science and Technology, Prithviraj Chavan recently told the Lok Sabha, “The processes, procedures and human performance aspects of all stations of NPCIL are being reviewed again to carry out reinforcements as appropriate.”
India might not have had a Chernobyl, and incidents like today may be small, few and far apart in time. But as a nuclear weapons country in a volatile region, it needs to negate any possibility of nuclear accidents- big or small, and assure the world about its security measures. It would be unfortunate if India gave the world a chance to worry about its nukes, just as they have been worried about Pakistan’s arsenal.
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