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Concerns over Indian nuclear capabilities — Hasan Ehtisham
Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Ever since the India-US nuclear deal has taken place, India has signed civil nuclear deals with more than half a dozen countries. Hence the most precarious lie advocated that India has a strong track record of nuclear safety for the materilisation of these nuclear deals. On the other hand, mainstream media and western governments are constantly generating hype about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, whereas they are not concerned about highly startling conditions regarding the nuclear capabilities of India.

Now if we prefer to remain on the surface, some print and electronic media reports would lead us to believe that India has a strong nuclear non-proliferation track record. On the contrary, the highly alarming situation remains unnoticed. There is an unnoticed and largely ignored history of Indian illegal nuclear procurement, poor nuclear export controls and mismanagement of nuclear facilities. For instance, India diverted Canadian-supplied fuel for research and generating power to make nuclear weapons. But there is more to the nuclear programme than meets the unsuspecting eye.

Let us look at the nuclear safety first. There are numerous hazardous nuclear installations in India that could lead to a major disaster with extraordinary bearing on the lives of large populations around these facilities. According to the Australian newspaper, The Age, there is no national policy in India on nuclear and radiation safety. Despite all this, India has never strived to adopt world standards and best practices for nuclear safety. Radioactive wastes disposal in Indian rivers is an undocumented environmental tragedy in India.

In India, the constructions of nuclear facilities on coastlines are exposed to natural disasters like the monstrous tsunami of 2004. Beside the damage to the environment, there are numerous cases where workers were exposed to high radiation doses. There are 350 documented cases of radiation exposure that were reported at Tarapur, which is India’s first nuclear station.

There are huge nuclear security issues in India because it is prone to insurgent groups and separatist rebels. According to the Daily Mail’s reports, most of the India’s top nuclear facilities are located in exceedingly Naxal terrorists’-struck districts of India or in the ‘Red Corridor’.
Some of the sensitive nuclear installations situated in this Red Corridor are: Uranium Corporation of India Limited, Talcher Heavy Water Plant, Institute of Physics, Ceramatic Fuel Fabrication Facility, Nuclear Fuel Complex, Seha Institute of Nuclear Physic and Atomic Minerals Directorate. Around 90 percent of the Red Corridor areas are a No-Go-Zone for the Indian troops and Air Force. The Naxal rebels are in full control and there is no writ of the Indian government in these areas.

The shocking aspect of Daily Mail’s reports is that Indian nuclear scientists are reportedly assisting Naxal rebels to learn to utilise and transport Uranium. On the other hand, India’s maximum missile facilities are also located in either the Red Corridor or in the areas controlled by Hindu radicals and militant organizations. There are also reported cases of abduction of nuclear scientists from these areas,
which is a very disturbing situation with respect to safety and security of nuclear weapons.

Any nuclear accident in India could have serious fallout on its neighbouring countries and hence the poor safety and security measures are of great concern. For instance, a nuclear weapon in the hands of Indian terrorists could lead to an accidental nuclear war between Pakistan and India. Likewise, an accident at a nuclear power plant could release radiation that may not respect any borders.

India has to take numerous steps to ensure safety of its nuclear programme. Michael Krepon, who is the co-founder of a Washington based think tank and has looked at South Asia for four decades, once said that when it comes to nuclear strategy, people in Pakistan say little but act expeditiously! In India, on the other hand, people write much and act slowly. So merely talking about nuclear issues will not resolve the dilemma of nuclear insecurity for India; they will have to walk the talk. Indian government needs to take concrete and verifiable steps to ensure the safety and security of its nukes.

The writer is a freelance columnist

Daily Times | Concerns over Indian nuclear capabilities
 
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Concerns over Indian nuclear capabilities — Hasan Ehtisham
Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Ever since the India-US nuclear deal has taken place, India has signed civil nuclear deals with more than half a dozen countries. Hence the most precarious lie advocated that India has a strong track record of nuclear safety for the materilisation of these nuclear deals. On the other hand, mainstream media and western governments are constantly generating hype about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, whereas they are not concerned about highly startling conditions regarding the nuclear capabilities of India.

Now if we prefer to remain on the surface, some print and electronic media reports would lead us to believe that India has a strong nuclear non-proliferation track record. On the contrary, the highly alarming situation remains unnoticed. There is an unnoticed and largely ignored history of Indian illegal nuclear procurement, poor nuclear export controls and mismanagement of nuclear facilities. For instance, India diverted Canadian-supplied fuel for research and generating power to make nuclear weapons. But there is more to the nuclear programme than meets the unsuspecting eye.

Let us look at the nuclear safety first. There are numerous hazardous nuclear installations in India that could lead to a major disaster with extraordinary bearing on the lives of large populations around these facilities. According to the Australian newspaper, The Age, there is no national policy in India on nuclear and radiation safety. Despite all this, India has never strived to adopt world standards and best practices for nuclear safety. Radioactive wastes disposal in Indian rivers is an undocumented environmental tragedy in India.

In India, the constructions of nuclear facilities on coastlines are exposed to natural disasters like the monstrous tsunami of 2004. Beside the damage to the environment, there are numerous cases where workers were exposed to high radiation doses. There are 350 documented cases of radiation exposure that were reported at Tarapur, which is India’s first nuclear station.

There are huge nuclear security issues in India because it is prone to insurgent groups and separatist rebels. According to the Daily Mail’s reports, most of the India’s top nuclear facilities are located in exceedingly Naxal terrorists’-struck districts of India or in the ‘Red Corridor’.
Some of the sensitive nuclear installations situated in this Red Corridor are: Uranium Corporation of India Limited, Talcher Heavy Water Plant, Institute of Physics, Ceramatic Fuel Fabrication Facility, Nuclear Fuel Complex, Seha Institute of Nuclear Physic and Atomic Minerals Directorate. Around 90 percent of the Red Corridor areas are a No-Go-Zone for the Indian troops and Air Force. The Naxal rebels are in full control and there is no writ of the Indian government in these areas.

The shocking aspect of Daily Mail’s reports is that Indian nuclear scientists are reportedly assisting Naxal rebels to learn to utilise and transport Uranium. On the other hand, India’s maximum missile facilities are also located in either the Red Corridor or in the areas controlled by Hindu radicals and militant organizations. There are also reported cases of abduction of nuclear scientists from these areas,
which is a very disturbing situation with respect to safety and security of nuclear weapons.

Any nuclear accident in India could have serious fallout on its neighbouring countries and hence the poor safety and security measures are of great concern. For instance, a nuclear weapon in the hands of Indian terrorists could lead to an accidental nuclear war between Pakistan and India. Likewise, an accident at a nuclear power plant could release radiation that may not respect any borders.

India has to take numerous steps to ensure safety of its nuclear programme. Michael Krepon, who is the co-founder of a Washington based think tank and has looked at South Asia for four decades, once said that when it comes to nuclear strategy, people in Pakistan say little but act expeditiously! In India, on the other hand, people write much and act slowly. So merely talking about nuclear issues will not resolve the dilemma of nuclear insecurity for India; they will have to walk the talk. Indian government needs to take concrete and verifiable steps to ensure the safety and security of its nukes.

The writer is a freelance columnist

Daily Times | Concerns over Indian nuclear capabilities

THE MOMENT IT BECAME APPARENT THIS NEWS IS REPORTED BY LAND OF MARD-E-Momeen....

Lost ALL my INTEREST...........
 
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Wonder who's secure military facilities are so easy to infiltrate. Not us, but our neighbors have a nasty habit of leaving the door open.:angel:
 
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West needs to take the nukes from India before it does something stupid or Maoists take over the nukes...

May be we will give them to Pakistan,so it will be super safe from terrorists who attack well guarded air bases and blow up aircrafts,attack prisons and free its occupants,from drones and soldiers of countries miles away,who easily fly in a carry out operations right at the heart.
 
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May be we will give them to Pakistan,so it will be super safe from terrorists who attack well guarded air bases and blow up aircrafts,attack prisons and free its occupants,from drones and soldiers of countries miles away,who easily fly in a carry out operations right at the heart.

Khamosh. an attack on you by your own strategic assets cannot be considered to be a security breach.:offpost:
 
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@SUPARCO:If I remember correctly,the same article was posted before,with another title.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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Wonder who's secure military facilities are so easy to infiltrate. Not us, but our neighbors have a nasty habit of leaving the door open.:angel:

That's India's military and parliaments and biggest financial capital of India are so easy to infiltrate... No wonder west is scared

May be we will give them to Pakistan,so it will be super safe from terrorists who attack well guarded air bases and blow up aircrafts,attack prisons and free its occupants,from drones and soldiers of countries miles away,who easily fly in a carry out operations right at the heart.

Pakistan still hasn't had a major nuclear accident while India has :angel:
 
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That's India's military and parliaments and biggest financial capital of India are so easy to infiltrate... No wonder west is scared

Yes civilian targets, as opposed to a base which serves as the GHQ, owned/operated/guarded by the very military that is to operate nuclear devices. Must make them shiver in their patloons.

Not a single Indian military base has ever been subjected to an attack like Mehran or Kamra...something to do with then being guarded as opposed to a hotel.

That's India's military and parliaments and biggest financial capital of India are so easy to infiltrate... No wonder west is scared



Pakistan still hasn't had a major nuclear accident while India has :angel:

What nuclear accident pray tell?
 
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Yes civilian targets, as opposed to a base which serves as the GHQ, owned/operated/guarded by the very military that is to operate nuclear devices. Must make them shiver in their patloons.

Parliament and Indian military bases are not civilian targets...
Besides what happens in Pakistan also happens in India..
Pot calling kettle black is what...

Below is a list of leaks, fires and structural damages that have occurred in India’s civilian nuclear power sector. *Numerous other examples of oil leaks, hydrogen leaks, fires and high bearing vibrations have often shut plants, and sometimes not (1).

As the Department of Atomic Energy is not obliged to reveal details of ongoings at these plants to the public, there may be many other accidents that we do not know about.

April 2011 Fire alarms blare in the control room of the Kaiga Generating Station in Karnataka. *Comments by officials alternately say there was no fire, that there was only smoke and no fire, and that the fire was not in a sensitive area (2). *Details from the AERB are awaited.

November 2009 Fifty-five employees consume radioactive material after tritiated water finds its way into the drinking water cooler in Kaiga Generating Station. The NPCIL attributes the incident to “an insider’s mischief” (3).

April 2003 Six tonnes leak of heavy water at reactor II of the Narora Atomic *Power Station (NAPS) in Uttar Pradesh (4), indicating safety measures have not been improved from the leak at the same reactor three years previously.

January 2003 Failure of a valve in the Kalpakkam Atomic Reprocessing Plant in Tamil Nadu results in the release of high-level waste, exposing six workers to high doses of radiation (5). The leaking area of the plant had no radiation monitors or mechanisms to detect valve failure, which may have prevented the employees’ exposure. A safety committee had previously recommended that the plant be shut down. *The management blames the “over enthusiasm” of the workers (6).

May 2002 Tritiated water leaks from a downgraded heavy water storage tank at the tank farm of Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) 1&2 into a common dyke area. *An estimated 22.2 Curies of radioactivity is released into the environment (7).

November 2001 A leak of 1.4 tonnes of heavy water at the NAPS I reactor, resulting in one worker receiving an internal radiation dose of 18.49 mSv (8).

April 2000 Leak of about seven tonnes of heavy water from the moderator system at NAPS Unit II. Various workers involved in the clean-up received ‘significant uptakes of tritium’, although only one had a radiation dose over the recommended annual limit (9).

March 1999 Somewhere between four and fourteen tonnes (10) of heavy water leaks from the pipes at Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, during a test process. The pipes have a history of cracks and vibration problems (11) . Forty-two people are reportedly involved in mopping up the radioactive liquid (12).

May 1994 The inner surface of the containment dome of Unit I of Kaiga Generating Station collapses (delaminates) while the plant is under construction. Approximately 130 tonnes of concrete fall from a height of nearly thirty metres (13), injuring fourteen workers. The dome had already been completed (14), forming the part of the reactor designed to prevent escape of radioactive material into the environment in the case of an accident. *Fortunately, the core had not then been loaded.

February 1994 Helium gas and heavy water leak in Unit 1 of RAPS. *The plant is shut down until March 1997 (15).

March 1993 Two blades of the turbine in NAPS Unit I break off, slicing through other blades and indirectly causing a raging fire, which catches onto leaked oil and spreads through the turbine building. *The smoke sensors fail to detect the fire, which is only noticed once workers see the flames. *It causes a blackout in the plant, including the shutdown of the secondary cooling systems, and power is not restored for seventeen hours. *In the meantime, operators have to manually activate the primary shutdown system. *They also climb onto the roof to open valves to slow the reactions in the core by hand (16). *The incident was rated as a Level 3 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, INES.

May 1992 Tube leak causes a radioactive release of 12 Curies of radioactivity from Tarapur Atomic Power Station (17).

January 1992 Four tons of heavy water spilt at RAPS (17).

December 1991 A leak from pipelines in the vicinity of CIRUS and Dhruva research reactors at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Trombay, Maharashtra, results in severe Cs-137 soil contamination of thousands of times the acceptable limit. Local vegetation was also found to be contaminated, though contract workers digging to the leaking pipeline were reportedly not tested for radiation exposure, despite the evidence of their high dose (18).

July 1991 A contracted labourer mistakenly paints the walls of RAPS with heavy water before applying a coat of whitewash. He also washed his paintbrush, face and hands in the deuterated and tritiated water, and has not been traced since (19).
 
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Parliament and Indian military bases are not civilian targets...
Besides what happens in Pakistan also happens in India..
Pot calling kettle black is what...

Which Indian military base? A camp of foot soldiers?

The Parliament, which happens to be guarded by the police as opposed to a military base guarded by MPs and soldiers.


Nope, never had the NCA attacked now have we, that is what the Pakistani GHQ is.
 
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Which Indian military base? A camp of foot soldiers?

The Parliament, which happens to be guarded by the police as opposed to a military base guarded by MPs and soldiers.


Nope, never had the NCA attacked now have we, that is what the Pakistani GHQ is.

When Indian workers in power plants are MOPPING up radioactive material with BROOMS with no gloves, and reportedly touching their face afterwards, WE can really tell how safe your nukes are!
 
.
Parliament and Indian military bases are not civilian targets...
Besides what happens in Pakistan also happens in India..
Pot calling kettle black is what...

Below is a list of leaks, fires and structural damages that have occurred in India’s civilian nuclear power sector. *Numerous other examples of oil leaks, hydrogen leaks, fires and high bearing vibrations have often shut plants, and sometimes not (1).

As the Department of Atomic Energy is not obliged to reveal details of ongoings at these plants to the public, there may be many other accidents that we do not know about.

April 2011 Fire alarms blare in the control room of the Kaiga Generating Station in Karnataka. *Comments by officials alternately say there was no fire, that there was only smoke and no fire, and that the fire was not in a sensitive area (2). *Details from the AERB are awaited.

November 2009 Fifty-five employees consume radioactive material after tritiated water finds its way into the drinking water cooler in Kaiga Generating Station. The NPCIL attributes the incident to “an insider’s mischief” (3).

April 2003 Six tonnes leak of heavy water at reactor II of the Narora Atomic *Power Station (NAPS) in Uttar Pradesh (4), indicating safety measures have not been improved from the leak at the same reactor three years previously.

January 2003 Failure of a valve in the Kalpakkam Atomic Reprocessing Plant in Tamil Nadu results in the release of high-level waste, exposing six workers to high doses of radiation (5). The leaking area of the plant had no radiation monitors or mechanisms to detect valve failure, which may have prevented the employees’ exposure. A safety committee had previously recommended that the plant be shut down. *The management blames the “over enthusiasm” of the workers (6).

May 2002 Tritiated water leaks from a downgraded heavy water storage tank at the tank farm of Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) 1&2 into a common dyke area. *An estimated 22.2 Curies of radioactivity is released into the environment (7).

November 2001 A leak of 1.4 tonnes of heavy water at the NAPS I reactor, resulting in one worker receiving an internal radiation dose of 18.49 mSv (8).

April 2000 Leak of about seven tonnes of heavy water from the moderator system at NAPS Unit II. Various workers involved in the clean-up received ‘significant uptakes of tritium’, although only one had a radiation dose over the recommended annual limit (9).

March 1999 Somewhere between four and fourteen tonnes (10) of heavy water leaks from the pipes at Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, during a test process. The pipes have a history of cracks and vibration problems (11) . Forty-two people are reportedly involved in mopping up the radioactive liquid (12).

May 1994 The inner surface of the containment dome of Unit I of Kaiga Generating Station collapses (delaminates) while the plant is under construction. Approximately 130 tonnes of concrete fall from a height of nearly thirty metres (13), injuring fourteen workers. The dome had already been completed (14), forming the part of the reactor designed to prevent escape of radioactive material into the environment in the case of an accident. *Fortunately, the core had not then been loaded.

February 1994 Helium gas and heavy water leak in Unit 1 of RAPS. *The plant is shut down until March 1997 (15).

March 1993 Two blades of the turbine in NAPS Unit I break off, slicing through other blades and indirectly causing a raging fire, which catches onto leaked oil and spreads through the turbine building. *The smoke sensors fail to detect the fire, which is only noticed once workers see the flames. *It causes a blackout in the plant, including the shutdown of the secondary cooling systems, and power is not restored for seventeen hours. *In the meantime, operators have to manually activate the primary shutdown system. *They also climb onto the roof to open valves to slow the reactions in the core by hand (16). *The incident was rated as a Level 3 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, INES.

May 1992 Tube leak causes a radioactive release of 12 Curies of radioactivity from Tarapur Atomic Power Station (17).

January 1992 Four tons of heavy water spilt at RAPS (17).

December 1991 A leak from pipelines in the vicinity of CIRUS and Dhruva research reactors at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Trombay, Maharashtra, results in severe Cs-137 soil contamination of thousands of times the acceptable limit. Local vegetation was also found to be contaminated, though contract workers digging to the leaking pipeline were reportedly not tested for radiation exposure, despite the evidence of their high dose (18).

July 1991 A contracted labourer mistakenly paints the walls of RAPS with heavy water before applying a coat of whitewash. He also washed his paintbrush, face and hands in the deuterated and tritiated water, and has not been traced since (19).

Isn't that petty, I guess then that every nation (Considering that France, Germany, Japan, Russia and America have had more "leaks" and accidents individually than us) should start packing up its nukes.:omghaha:

When Indian workers in power plants are MOPPING up radioactive material with BROOMS with no gloves, and reportedly touching their face afterwards, WE can really tell how safe your nukes are!

Indeed, yet the nukes remain safe. After all the nukes are not in those plants, aren't even assembled in those plants. Unless accidental contact with a biological organism makes fissile material more unstable than it usually is. Got anything else bub?
 
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