Radio Safety Officers to monitor radiation levels across the country

C Shivakumar

Kalpakkam:

India is planning to increase radiation safety officers across the country as a plan to strengthen its nuclear disaster prepapredness, according to Madras Atomic Power Station director K Ramamurthy.

He told Express that after the Mayapuri incident in New Delhi on April 2010, where a research irradiator was dumped in a scrapyard resulting in high radiation due to the presence of Cobalt-60 in the area, has resulted in the appointment of 18 radiation safety officers. “Now the government is planning to have radio safety officers across the country to monitor the radiation levels,” he added.

Ramamoorthy also said the equipments to measure radiation, which was only with the department of atomic energy is now made available with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

Meanwhile, the meteorological data on the wind directions in Environmental Survey Laboratory will soon be automated so that the data can be made available easily to chart out a strategy to contain radiation. “We have all the infrastructure and will be only needing the software to make it automated,” Ramamoorthy said.

Interestingly, National Disaster management Authority (NDMA) has also urged the need to have a data on the change of wind direction during the climate change. The wind direction may impact where the radiation goes both at a local level and even across the globe.