Will federal auditor's report on nuclear
watchdog open a Pandora's box?
Friday August 31, 2012 12:36:45 PM,
Dhirendra Sharm, IANS
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For the first time, a constitutional authority has managed to
collect information from the secret chambers of India's nuclear
estate and table it before both houses of parliament.
The performance report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of
India (CAG), the federal auditor, submitted Aug 22 is yet to be
debated by parliament members. When that happens, it would be an
unprecedented event as it is for the first time that a document
highly critical of India's "holy cow" - the Department of Atomic
Energy (DAE) - has been placed before parliament.
In its far-reaching report, the CAG appeared somewhat constrained
to only look into the operations directly related to the issues of
safety, public health and environment. For long years of existence
of the DAE, critics were raising questions of public safety around
the nuclear facilities. They were routinely denied or at best
ignored by the authorities.
The DAE, for several years, functioned without an independent
watchdog for effective regulatory supervision of the potentially
hazardous nuclear enterprise despite questions raised by critics
about public safety, long-term waste management and
de-commissioning of reactors at the end of their life.
Even the 1979 Three Mile Island disaster in the United States did
not immediately prompt the government to establish a nuclear
regulator. It was only in November 1983 that a small office board
appeared inside the DAE: 'Atomic Energy Regulatory Board' or AERB.
Still, even after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, the
Government of India had not agreed to an independent regulatory
commission while it has been pointed out that in all countries
having nuclear power programmes such as the US and Britain,
regulatory authorities have been created though law and they
function with autonomy.
The Indian government, however, has all these years ignored the
demand for an independent regulatory commission. In fact, as the
CAG report says, the AERB functions as a handmaiden of the DAE and
it cannot visit any radiation spot or assess any reactor or
nuclear facility without the authorisation of DAE.
The CAG has, within its restricted scope of auditing the affairs
of the AERB, clearly confirmed the long voiced criticism against
the DAE that it had shown little concern for public safety.
The report is an indictment of the nuclear establishment (and the
government of India) for allowing the nuclear energy operation in
the country without accountability and with no regulatory
supervision for so long.
The CAG report made it clear that 27 of the 168 recommendations
for public health and radiation safety made by two panels after
the Chernobyl accident are yet to be implemented.
Nonetheless, the CAG has for the first time asked the most
relevant question: Why in all these years has the AERB not
conducted an independent assessment of nuclear safety management
in the country? Why is there no monitoring of radiological
exposure to workers inside the nuclear facilities?
The CAG has through this report informed the nation that the DAE
functions without a regulatory enforcement mechanism and that
public safety is no concern of the DAE.
The CAG has now reported that the AERB did not have a detailed
inventory of all radiation sources in the country. The report has
clearly stated that without reliable inventory of radiation
sources in the country, public safety from radiation exposure
could not be assured. The situation is alarming.
Much more alarming is the revelation that there is no planning for
safe disposal of de-commissioned reactors in the country.
Following the Chernobyl catastrophe, I requested the DAE to
prepare a nuclear accident crisis management policy and provide
the administration around nuclear installations with emergency
evacuation procedures.
"If we do that, the public would not allow a nuclear facility
anywhere in the country," replied the then AEC chairman.
I am sure many more secrets shielded by the 'holy cow' will become
visible once the members take up the CAG report for discussion in
parliament.
Dhirendra Sharma is the former head of the Centre for
Science Policy at Jawaharlal Nehru University and now president of
Concerned Scientists & Philosophers in Dehradun. He can be reached
at dhiren.sharma32@gmail.com
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