Lok Sabha Debates
Safety Of Nuclear Establishments In The Country. on 10 August, 2010
> Title: Safety of Nuclear establishments in the country.
SHRI ANTO ANTONY (PATHANAMATHITTA): Mr. Deputy-Speaker, Sir, I request the Government to urgently inquire into the mysterious deaths of young scientists in nuclear installations in our country. Within a year, four scientists died and 100 workers in nuclear installations were seriously affected by radiations. Both the dead and the ill-affected were working in our leading nuclear installations such as Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai and Kaiga Atomic Power Station in Karnataka.
The matter of concern is that the authorities could not unearth the causes or are not ready to disclose the findings of these unnatural deaths and other casualties. Decomposed body of Shri L. Mahalingam, a Senior Scientific Officer at Kaiga Atomic Power Station was fished out from the Kali River. Shri Umang and Partha Pratim Bag were burnt to death in a mysterious fire in the modular lab of the Radiation and Photochemistry Department at the BARC. Both of them were young scientists at BARC. The RPD Lab is situated in the high security BARC Complex, which is one kilometer away from the nuclear reactors. What made suspicious the deaths of these two young researchers is that none of them were dealing with inflammable material.
In the similar vein, Shri Mahadevan Padmnabhan Iyer, a mechanical engineer at BARC, was found dead in his staff quarters in Mumbai. At first, it seemed that he had suffered a heart attack. The police presumed suicide, but the autopsy confirmed murder.
At the same time, 100 workers at the Kaiga Atomic Power Station fell ill after drinking tritium-laced water.
Even after several months since these mishaps occurred, there were no initiatives to find the causes behind them. Family members of the deceased were harassed during the time of police questioning.
It is learnt that the Trombay’s Assistant Commissioner of Police has submitted a report regarding the deaths due to fire at BARC Lab. The BARC’s internal inquiry report has also been submitted to the Government. Therefore, I request the Government to kindly disclose the findings of the report and take urgent steps in this regard. It is also imperative to ensure our nuclear safety.