Greenpeace radiation experts have identified eight hotspots in New Delhi’s Mayapuri locality which have 5,000 times the natural background radiation defined as “safe” by the department of atomic energy.
A team of Greenpeace nuclear energy campaigners led by radiation expert Jan Vande Putte visited the Mayapuri scrapyard, including Shop 32, from where exposure to Cobalt 60 claimed one life and caused injuries to 11 others.
Armed with digital gam-ma spectrometers, gamma dosimeters and dose rate measurement instruments on Friday morning, the team was able to detect eight hotspots in a 200-500-metre radius of Shop 32. “We immediately marked the areas with tape and white cement, and informed the local SHO (police station chief) and experts of the Atomic Energy Regul-atory Board,” said Green-peace’s Karuna Raina.
“The particles emitting the gamma rays are so tiny that they are invisible to the eye, but that does not make it any less dangerous,” said Mr Putte.
The activists accused the AERB and National Disa-ster Management Authority of negligence, saying they should have done a much more thorough job as those living and working here were exposed to high radiation levels. Greenpeace noted that the steps mandated by the AERB require radiation experts to scoop out the soil containing radioactive material and get it disposed of safely.