Radiation Hazards

The contamination of drinking water with heavy water in the Kaiga atomic power plant in Karnataka is a matter for serious concern — particularly because of the tendency in India to seek rationalization in bad precedents. In fact, one can almost hear senior officers of Power Corporation (which runs the Kaiga plant) giving the example of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine which exploded in April 1986 causing 56 direct deaths and the possible cancer deaths of 4,000 more people later on due to radiation. This was certainly likely, considering that the radioactive fallout was 400 times the fallout released by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The Chernobyl fallout also affected a population of about 600,000 mostly in Belerus. The Chernobyl episode is thus a horror to be avoided at all costs and not one that should be quoted as a precedent of sorts.

It is generally accepted that nuclear power plants are facilities we cannot do without in today’s world and that we should learn to handle them with great care and caution because we will have to learn to live with them. Nuclear power plants have a far shorter gestation period than hydro-electric power plants and cause much less pollution than thermal plants provided the radioactive fallout can be contained. Nuclear power plants are going to be a reality in the future also because there are bound to be more States in the Northeast than just Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam that have uranium deposits. The possibilities of radioactive fallout of smaller magnitude already exist since there have been reports about uranium pilferage in Meghalaya. Given the likelihood of human cupidity taking precedence over caution, there could be a strong justification for far greater public education relating to the handling of radioactive material both at nuclear power plants and at places where we have uranium deposits. Security arrangements alone are not enough. THE SENTINEL