"Preliminary enquiry does not reveal any violation of operating procedures or radioactivity releases or security breach. It is possibly an act of mischief," NPCIL Chairman and Managing Director S.K. Jain said in a statement.
He said radioactive contamination of the water cooler located outside the reactor building is "a matter of concern and the cause (of the leakage) is being investigated".
Since the incident was detected five days ago, the water cooler - which was identified as the source of radiation leakage - has been isolated and put out of service, Jain said.
In New Delhi, Minister of Science & Technology Prithviraj Chavan confirmed the "sabotage" at the nuclear plant and said a high-level probe has been ordered.
"It could be the handiwork of a disgruntled employee and we are awaiting the results of the inquiry," Chavan told mediapersons.
Jain pointed out that Unit 1 of Kaiga has been shut down for annual maintenance since Oct 20. Meanwhile Units 2 and 3 continue to be operational even as Unit 4 is under construction.
"All the systems of all the units are healthy and there is no release of radioactivity to the environment within the plant site and outside," he pointed out.
The devastated incident of contamination of water with radiation is much ado about nothing contend the stalwarts of the DAE. Kaiga is set up in the midst of the Western Ghats, and any contamination or radiation leak will affect the whole forests of the area. At the time of setting up of the Plant and when initial discussions were in progress in 1983, the people of Uttara Kannada espiecally Mallapur, Sirsi and karwar opposed the setting up of the Plant as the Indian atomic energy programme did not have a disaster plan. They quoted the Three Mile Island incident in America. There were many information dissemination sessions in various areas. The one held at Vajrahally in Mallapur area had in attendance Dr **** ramanna, Dr M R Srinivasan, R V Deshpande, then Minsiter and presently KPCC President , R Suresh, IAS, Dy Commissioner and many others. I had made a study of thePower situation in Karnataka and had come to the conclusion that Karnataka required a nuclear plant, as it was excessiuvely dependent on hydro electric power. There were two such projects in Uttara Kannada district itself- Kali Power project, Kali tailrace Power project. In order to tackle the displacement of population uprooted by Kaiga and Seabird navalbase(presently I.N.S.Kadamba), I wrote the "Greater Karwar Development Authority" Project. The well known scientists said that a nuclear plant does not burst like an atom bomb. Within about 3/6 months, the Chernobhyl disaster struck which dispproved the theory of the scinetists of DAE. Chernobhyl nuclear plant burst like a bomb.
Such a grave incident, which saw hospitalisation of mroe than 50 people in Mallapur hospital, covertly or implicitly a mistake of one staff or more, water cooler getting contaminated water, radiation effect partially or wholly, and cool treatment of the water-cooler incident in an nuclear plant, speak volumes of the unprepared security set-up which is not in place. Any disaster can happen at any time. Air Pollution, Waterpollution, anything can cause distruction. Are you listening Hon'ble Shri Jairam ramesh?
Bhopal Gas Tragedy?
1984 BJP Government...Oooops sorry
Kangress Govt
26000 people died....Justice derived...Oooops sorry
Candles were lit but no justice from 1984 to 2009
SABOTAGE? YOU MUST BE KIDDING!!
TYPICAL INDIFFERENT AND CARELESS INDIAN GOVERNMENT STANDARDS. ANYHOW, WE NOW HAVE ANOTHER GOVERNEMENT BODY TO INVESTIGATE, SO WE KNOW WHAT THE OUTCOME WILL BE!
No leak at all? Mischief? Malevolent act? Sabotage? Thus spake plant director, AEC Chief and S&T minister. Now who is going to probe? To prevent a mini-Hiroshima from happening, the probe has to be by a credible authority outside the corrupt and secretive nuke officialdom. Letting AERB conduct an enquiry is a cruel joke! An experts committee will be formed. It will decide the incident as not of SERIOUS safety concern. The pliable watchdog did exactly that when the reactor was under construction. There were serious allegations of lapses in fabricating coolant channel components. It was well known that the compromises will cause grave radiation leaks. Yet NPC engineers hushed up the allegation to bail out favoured contractors. AERB connived in the scandal and appointed an experts committee that contained the very same engineers. The committee opined that the issue was “not of SERIOUS safety concern” (as if there could be non-serious compromises about integrity of materials!) The vigilance department and even the Central Vigilance Commission chose to close the files and shield top guns responsible for the scandal.