Radiation contamination: Probe team questions Kaiga employees

Kaiga (Karna), Nov 30 (PTI) Investigators on Monday
questioned employees present in the operating area of the
Kaiga Nuclear Power Plant after preliminary findings revealed
"internal sabotage" for the radioactive contamination of
drinking water at the high-security complex.
The probe team, which includes nuclear scientists,
questioned the employees present on the night intervening
November 23-24 during which radioactive heavy water (tritium)
vials were put in the water cooler, said a senior official in
the plant in southern Indian state of Karnataka's Uttara
Kannada District.
"Relevant agencies are conducting the probe. Questioning
is part of the investigation," he said.
In New Delhi, Union Minister Prithviraj Chavan said the
Government was taking the issue "very seriously" as it was
"breach of some security measures".
Chavan, who is the Minister of State for Atomic Energy,
said, "All agencies are looking into the matter. Somebody from
the lab, who had access to the water cooler, had done it
between between 3 am and 6 am (of November 24)."
On the medical treatment provided to around 50 employees
who were exposed to radiation after drinking the cooler water,
Chavan said, "All the people have been medicated and they have
returned to work."
Kaiga plant officials said the computer access control
system has a record of all the personnel who had entered the
“operating island” as the contamination incident is believed
to be an insider's job.
Terming the incident as a "malevolent act", Atomic
Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar has said, "Somebody
deliberately put the tritiated water vials into the drinking
water cooler".
Officials said that preliminary probe has shown it was
an act of mischief and did not reveal any violation of
operating procedures or leak.
Nuclear Power Corporation's Chairman S K Jain said all
the units of the plant were normal and none of its workers has
been admitted to a hospital.
Kaiga plant Station Director of the Kaiga plant J P
Gupta told PTI on Monday, "There is no radioactivity change in
the local environment.
"There is no release of radioactivity to the
environment within the plant site and outside," Gupta said.
"All plant systems are functioning normally. There is no cause
whatsoever for any radiation safety concern."
Chavan said, "What I have inquired from Kakodkar and
Jain is that somebody put tritiated heavy water in the water
cooler. It was definitely done to hurt anybody.
"The (human) system clear up in a day or two (in case
of such contamination." The employees working in the first
maintenance unit of the power station were treated at the
plant hospital in Mallapur for increased level of radiation.
According to B Bhattacharjee, Member, National Disaster
Management Authority, the cooler was found to be sealed.
"But later on, the investigators found that through the
drainage, the overflow line of the cooler, that it seems some
mischief monger inserted some tritiated water and contaminated
the whole cooler."
Kaiga currently has three 220 mw plants -- two are
operational and one has been shut-down from October 20 for
annual maintenance. A fourth one is slated to be operational
from later this financial year.
Few years back a similar malevolent act was observed in
Tarapur atomic power sub-station and the culprits were
dismissed after investigations. PTI Team
SKT