AERB Asks DU How Radioactive Waste Sold as Scrap
The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has given Delhi University (DU) two weeks time to explain how radioactive waste, which killed a man earlier this week, was sold as scrap, reported BBC.
Besides, the AERB also instructed DU to hang up all experiments requiring the use of radioactive substances, report said.
It may be mentioned that a scrap metal worker died on Monday after dismantling an irradiation machine sold by the university, said report.
Police said that others who were exposed to radiation were in hospital and critically ill, reports said.
In the meanwhile, DU authorities said that they were probing the incident, which AERB described as a ‘serious violation’, said report.
On Wednesday, police said that cobalt-60 had leaked from a machine that was being dismantled in a scrap market in the city’s Mayapuri industrial area.
Search teams have found cobalt-60 in several shops in the area.
Burial of Radioactive Waster
Meanwhile, a teacher of chemistry at the DU said that ‘more than 20kg’ of radioactive waste was dumped in the campus more than 20 years ago, report said.
“The waste was buried in front of the physics department during 1986-87. I had protested about it, but nobody listened to me,” Professor Ramesh Chandra was quoted as saying.
A senior official of the AERB said that its scientists would be checking Professor Chandra’s claim, and decide on whether the campus should be checked for radiation, said report.
Rules governing the disposal of radioactive waste say that the AERB should be informed by the organisation possessing it. The AERB then sends trained professionals to seal the waste and take it away.
