M R Srinivasan focused on the peaceful use of nuclear power at a time when the popular view among the 'hawks' was that India should build a nuclear arsenal as a deterrent.
Contradictory reports have been making the rounds regarding the controversy surrounding the Kaiga incident of 55 workers falling ill after drinking contaminated water at the nuclear plant. While the Kaiga authorities claim that a list of names of casual contract labourers have been submitted to the police, the police on the other hand have said that no formal complaint has been lodged with them as yet.
To investigate the Kaiga episode, we need a truly independent committee, composed of external experts, radiation biologists, safety specialists and representatives of workers and citizens liable to be affected by nuclear mishaps.
The Karnataka police has filed a first information report into the case of radiation contamination of a drinking water cooler at the nuclear power plant here, but the document does not name any accused.
He said efforts were on to increase the capacity and negotiations for agreement with the US were going on.
The culprits behind the 'criminal act' of mixing highly radioactive tritium heavy water in the water cooler at the Kaiga nuclear power plant in Karnataka are yet to be identified, a top Atomic Energy Commission official said on Monday.
Principal scientific advisor to the government of India R Chidambaram, said on Tuesday, that there was no need to panic over the issue of recent incident of radiation contamination in the drinking water cooler at Kaiga Nuclear Power Plant in Karnataka.
Superintendent of Police (Uttar Kannada) Rama Gupta had sensed this problem almost a year ago and had shot off two letters in March and July to the plant authorities as well as the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited stating that an inter-union rivalry could lead to the security of the plant being compromised.
A terror angle to the Kaiga incident has been ruled out for the time being with the police being given a list of 10 names who are involved in the incident.
Investigators probing the radiation contamination of a drinking water cooler unit in Kaiga atomic plant in Karnataka have zeroed in on five employees from whose department the heavy water could have been smuggled out.
Investigators have revealed that an 'insider' is involved in the contamination of drinking water at the Kaiga nuclear plant in Karwar, Karnataka, and that they were questioning 10 people from the set-up in this regard.
Nabbing the real culprit may be difficult since there was no CCTV in front of the water cooler where the alleged sabotage took place.
Lokanath Mahalingam, an employee at Kaiga Atomic Power Station, who has been missing for the past four days, was not in possession of any classified information, said Nageshwar Rao, director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, Operations.
In a case of sabotage, Atomic Energy Commission chief Anil Kakodkar on Sunday said somebody "deliberately" put radioactive tritium in a water cooler at the Kaiga Nuclear Power Plant that exposed about 50 workers to increased level of radiation.
The mystery surrounding Lokanath Mahalingam, an employee at Kaiga Atomic Power Station, who was missing for the past four days finally came to an end with his dead-body recovered from the Kali river late on Saturday.
The commissioning of two new atomic power stations, slated for this month, has been postponed indefinitely because of sustained nuclear fuel shortage, which is also affecting the existing atomic power projects in India. There is no possibility of the fifth unit (220 MW) of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Project at Rawatbhatta and the fourth reactor of Kaiga Atomic Power Project in Karnataka going critical in the near future.
The real, frightening problem is that there is no one fighting communalism in Karnataka.
Once completed, the 10 reactors of 700 MW each will give much needed fillip to the domestic nuclear industry.
'Forensics experts say in all such unexplained deaths of scientists and engineers involved in the nuclear programme, fingerprints are absent, as also other clues that would assist the police in identifying the culprit(s).' Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com reports on a petition that demands a Special Investigation Team probe the mysterious deaths of India's nuclear scientists.
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