People’s
Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)
Idinthakarai & P. O. 627
104
Tirunelveli District, Tamil
Nadu
Phone: 98656 83735; 98421
54073
August
22, 2012
PMANE Calls for the
Resignation of Sri. S. S. Bajaj and the Disbanding of AERB
While thanking the
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the timely and comprehensive
report entitled “Performance Audit on Activities of Atomic Energy Regulatory
Board (Department of Atomic Energy),” the People’s Movement Against Nuclear
Energy (PMANE) calls for the immediate resignation of its Chairman Sri. S. S.
Bajaj and for the complete disbanding of this ineffective and wasteful
handmaiden-organization of the Indian nuclear establishment.
The
CAG report aptly sums up that “AERB is on a very tenuous ground if it has to be
judged in terms of benchmarks of what is expected of an independent regulator”
who is supposed to deal with regulation, verification and enforcement of
regulations.
As
the report establishes correctly, “the legal status of AERB continued to be
that of an authority subordinate to the Central Government” and its Department
of Atomic Energy. In fact, the DAE, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.
(NPCIL), and the AERB all function out of Mumbai and have offices at
Anushaktinagar in Mumbai.
In
fact, the CAG report finds the AERB’s performance not only dismal but pathetic
in all areas of its operation. For instance, the report clearly records the
disheartening fact that “AERB failed to prepare a nuclear and radiation safety
policy for the country in spite of a specific mandate in its Constitution Order
of 1983. The absence of such a policy at a macro level can hamper micro level
planning of radiation safety in the country.”
More
than this inordinate delay in the development of safety policy, the “consenting
process and system for monitoring and renewal were found to be weak in respect
of radiation facilities.” Consequently, our highly and densely populated
country has enormous number of radiation facilities without valid licenses and
our mostly illiterate and half-literate people have been at the mercy of these
facilities and corrupt officials and politicians.
Even
after the Supreme Court had directed the AERB in 2001 to set up a
‘Directorate of Radiation Safety (DRS)’ in each state for regulating X-ray
installations, DRS has been set up only in Kerala and Mizoram so far. AERB’s
scant regards for the Judiciary and the Laws of the Land was demonstrated when
they completely ignored the Madras High Court’s legal proceedings and gave
permission for Initial Fuel Loading (IFL) at the Koodankulam Nuclear Power
Project’s unit 1. They had given a written undertaking at the MHC that they
would implement all the recommendations of the post-Fuklushima task force but
conveniently forgot to do that before giving IFL permission to KKNPP.
The
CAG report points out that AERB has not conducted 85 percent regulatory
inspections for both industrial radiography and radiotherapy units. Obviously,
the “AERB was not exercising effective regulatory oversight over units related
to the health of the public.” Even worse, “AERB had failed to enforce safety
provisions and compliance with its own stipulations even when its attention was
specifically drawn to deficiencies in the case of units in Kerala.” Please note
that this is in the most literate and political aware state of Kerala and one
can easily imagine what AERB would have done in other backward states.
The
CAG report establishes that AERB does not have a detailed inventory of all
radiation sources or proper mechanisms to ensure or verify that radioactive
waste is disposed of safely. One may remember the Mayapuri incident in Delhi in
which radioactive waste was found in a hawker shop in April 2010 and two people
were killed due to radioactive exposure.
The
CAG report also establishes the cruel fact that “off-site emergency exercises
carried out (by AERB) highlighted inadequate emergency preparedness.” The
recent off-site emergency exercise held at Nakkaneri hamlet near Koodankulam is
a case in point. The AERB officials were actually present at this farce also.
The
CAG report puts on record: “Even after the lapse of 13 years from the issue of
the Safety Manual relating to decommissioning by AERB, none of the NPPs in the
country, including those operating for 30 years and those which had been shut
down, had a decommissioning plan.” When we asked the Central Government Team
about the decommissioning plan for Koodankulam, their report simply said
“provisions for facilitating decommissioning in KKNPP-1&2 have been made in
the design” without giving details. The CAG has found out that AERB is “slow in
adopting international benchmarks and good practices in the areas of nuclear
and radiation operation.”
The
CAG report has welcome recommendations that India needs a nuclear regulator who
is “empowered and independent” and that a “nuclear and radiation safety policy
may be framed in a time-bound manner.” Out of 27 codes and guides required for
nuclear and radiation safety, AERB has developed only 11 and the rest need to
be “developed expeditiously.”
In a
typical DAE style, the DAE has “acknowledged the concerns” highlighted by the
CAG without “specific assurances giving timelines within which our (CAG)
recommendations would be acted upon.” In all probability, AERB would do nothing
and simply dismiss the CAG report. The Prime Minister, who is also the atomic
energy minister, must respond to this devastating CAG report in a responsible
manner, announce a moratorium on all the nuclear activities all over India, set
up an “empowered and independent” regulatory authority, and most importantly,
work for the welfare of the people of India rather than the corporations of the
United States, Russia, France and Australia etc.
The
Struggle Committee
The
People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)
To read the CAG report click the link given below:
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