[What the professor’s team uncovered was hard evidence of the toxic footprint cast by the country's secret nuclear mining and fuel fabrication program. It is now the subject of a potentially powerful legal action, shining an unusual light on India’s nuclear ambitions and placing a cloud over its future reactor operations.]
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/12/14/18844/india-s-nuclear-industry-pours-its-wastes-river-death-and-disease Nuclear Waste India’s nuclear industry pours its wastes into a river of death and disease Scientists say nuclear workers, village residents, and children living near mines and factories are falling ill after persistent exposure to unsafe radiation By Adrian Levy 5:00 am, December 14, 2015 Updated: 1 hour, 33 minutes ago Eleanor Bell/Center for Public Integrity Key findings: Indian and Japanese scientists have found that Indian citizens living downstream from the country’s enormous uranium mining and processing complex are routinely exposed to exceptionally high levels of radiation. SHARE THIS FINDING: The Indian government has either rebuffed or suppressed some of these findings, insisting that any illnesses are caused by poverty, not radiation. SHARE THIS FINDING: Evidence presented in confidence to a state court shows that the state-owned operations have repeatedly flouted international safety standards. SHARE THIS FINDING: Illnesses attributed by residents and local groups to the radioactive pollution include infertility and birth defects. SHARE THIS FINDING: Jadugoda, Jharkhand, INDIA — The Subarnarekha River roars out of the Chota Nagpur plateau in eastern India, before emptying 245 miles downstream into the Bay of Bengal, making it a vital source of life, and lately, of death. The name means streak of gold and for centuries prospectors around Ranchi, the traffic-choked capital of Jharkhand state, have sought fortunes by panning for nuggets in its headwaters, which wash over a region flecked with minerals and ore. Its link to widespread misfortune is not admitted by the Indian government. But the authorities' role in the deaths of those who live near it first became clear when professor Dipak Ghosh, a respected Indian physicist and dean of the Faculty of Science at Jadavpur University in Kolkata decided to chase down a rural “myth” among the farmers along its banks. They had long complained that the Subarnarekha was poisoned, and said their communities suffered from tortuous health problems. When Ghosh’s team seven years ago collected samples from the river and also from adjacent wells, he was alarmed by the results. The water was adulterated with radioactive alpha particles that cannot be absorbed through the skin or clothes, but if ingested cause 1,000 times more damage than other types of radiation. In some places, the levels were 160 percent higher than safe limits set by the World Health Organization. “It was potentially catastrophic,” Ghosh said in a recent interview. Millions of people along the waterway were potentially exposed. ***What the professor’s team uncovered was hard evidence of the toxic footprint cast by the country's secret nuclear mining and fuel fabrication program. It is now the subject of a potentially powerful legal action, shining an unusual light on India’s nuclear ambitions and placing a cloud over its future reactor operations.*** [Emphasis added.] A comprehensive new energy plan approved by the government in October declared that nuclear power is "a safe, environmentally benign and economically viable source to meet the increasing electricity needs of the country." And Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while standing beside President Obama at a Paris conference on global warming Nov. 30, said "India is a very nature-loving country and we are setting out, as always, to protect nature in the world" while producing energy. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
