With Japanese nuclear authorities placing the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crisis at par with the world’s worst nuclear disaster which took place at Chernobyl in 1986, Indian experts feel the cumulative release of radioactive substances will contaminate the affected areas for several years.
Dr K. Santhaman, a former scientist with the DRDO, said, “This will go down as the worst nuclear disaster in history and could prove to be worse than even Chernobyl accident which spread radioactivity across Europe. Radioisotopes have a long life and will contaminate areas around them for a very long period of time,” he added. Other Indian experts fear cumulative radiation leaks spread over the last month would have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and sea water.
Prof. B. Bhattacharjee of the NDMA also sound a word of caution insisting it was imperative on the Japanese nuclear regulators to bring down radiation levels at the earliest.
The decision to raise the level to seven was taken by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency which fears that massive amounts of radioactive substances are being released by the damaged facilities.
In the light of this disaster, minister of environment Jairam Ramesh dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressing concerns “that have arisen in my mind following the nuclear catastrophe in Japan,” he wrote. “While I agree that sites are limited, should we not relook at the concept of nuclear parks wherein we set up giant capacities at one location (like Fukushima)? Jaitapur will have 10,000 MW capacity. Is this wise? The negative public perceptions at Jaitapur have been caused because of this capacity — two plants would have been opposed no doubt, but would not have cause the same disquiet as six plants,” Ramesh wrote.