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Radiation risk still remains in Delhi scrap market: Greenpeace | Greenpeace has said there are still radiation-related
risks to people at a scrap market in New Delhi where a person died last month after exposure to Cobalt-60 isotope. "Our findings are that there are severe and
dangerous radiation at very limited spots like spots of few tens of centimeters
wide where some radioactive particles that the eyes can't see but still dangerous.
They are being carried by trucks and so on from highly contaminated area from
around that shop. It is a serious risk to the population who are working there,"
said Van Vande Putte, a Greenpeace radiation expert. "We scanned an area of around
200 by 400 meters and found six hot spots there. We identified and marked those
spots and the level of radiation there, the dose rate was around 500 microsievert
per hour, which is basically a lot more higher than the normal background radiation
level. That poses an unacceptable risk to the life of the people there," added
Nirupama, an activist of the same organisation. Greenpeace experts will now compile
a report and present their findings to Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB),
which had recently declared the area safe. Improper disposal of sensitive nuclear
waste by the Delhi University came into focus after a worker dealing in scrap
in a local market died of radiation exposure to Cobalt-60 last month. The radioactive
metal found its way to the scrap market from a Gamma Irradiator at a laboratory
of the university's Chemistry Department, bought in 1968 from Canada . It is reported
that these scrap dealers dismantled the item and in the process, the lead covering
on it got peeled off, leading to radiation exposure. Cobalt-60 is a radioactive
isotope of cobalt that is hard, lustrous, grey metal. It is used in cancer therapy
and assorted other medical treatment. |
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