By:Debraj Deb (Bureau Chief-ICN Tripura)
Area 28 is real. And it is a closely guarded facility at Trombay, just 13 Km from Mumbai city, the business capital of India.For those wondering if it has got anything to do with secret facilities and nuclear programs, well yes, Area 28 is a part of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), the first facility of India’s Nuclear Energy Program. And that’s all they told you, until now.
MUMBAI: India’s Nuclear Program started way back in 1957. From being a handful of people struggling with APSARA, the nation’s first research reactor, which was a micro facility and a couple of other equipments, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is now a full-fledged department operating out of five research centers, three industrial organizations, five public sector undertakings and three service organizations including seven fully operational nuclear reactors and a few others in the pipeline.
Since then, the DAE has had two other nuclear reactors – the CYRUS and the DHRUVA. With two others decommissioned years back, DHRUVA remains as the only working research reactor run by the DAE.
With a vast majority of people frowning at the very idea of more nuclear energy projects in India, it is indeed a challenge to advocate nuclear projects. The main reason as Director of BARC Dr. KN Vyas puts it, is the apprehension of nuclear radiation fallout.
“See this is a completely unfounded fear perception. Nuclear energy is a clean source of energy and the world needs more energy today”, Vyas told a group of reporters who went to visit the BARC facility as a part of an event organized by the DAE and the National Union of Journalists (India).
Vyas claims that an average human being receives more ionizing radiation on an airplane than a working nuclear reactor.Brushing aside all rumours of nuclear catastrophe in India, Vyas claimed that there barely a single case of nuclear radiation-induced death registered in India till date, that too when a misplaced radio-isotope tube burst in the hands of an unsuspecting child near Mayapuri.
“Apart from that one incident, there weren’t any cases where somebody was killed or harmed by radiation”, he stated.The Director went on to state that the Japanese failure at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant in 2011 didn’t affect anybody at all other than a few people who were right inside the plant at the time of Tsunami.
“Research on nuclear energy started in the world for all the wrong reasons. Perhaps, that’s why the paranoia is so high”, the BARC Director suggested.When asked if India’s ambitious nuclear program would pose any form of health hazard or risk to the nation’s population, he said that nuclear facilties wouldn’t pose any threat, rather offered a unique chance to venture beyond the boundaries of achieved innovation including assured safety in food products,better ensuring soil quality, better healthcare on a number of ailments – especially cancer and a number of other spin-off technologies.
Among its many mandates, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre started a specialized wing for nuclear waste management – a unique move out of its own accord to provide clean nuclear energy without any fallout of major nuclear waste.As its motto would suggest, waste is a resource for BARC.
While speaking to ICN Dr. C.P. Kaushik, head of BARC’s Waste Management Division, said that the nuclear fuel residue reprocessing facility, that was set up 2 years back, had succesfully produced 102 cesium 137 solid non-dispersible pencils, that could be further used for radio-active applications.
While the West keeps heaping nuclear waste, India has shown the way for sensible and scientific use of nuclear residue. Scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) have figured out a way to minimize the radioactivity of the residue quantum to near-zero levels. And that is only the beginning.
“We have found that there are a number of radioactive elements that are still present in the nuclear residue that could have been used for other secondary applications if we had the required technology to separate them”, Kaushik said.
He added that after proper research and development, the men and women at BARC were now able to extract Ru106, a component used for complex eye treatments, Cesium-137 and other radio-isotopes that can be used for medical purposes.A completely robotic unit at Area 28 of the BARC complex in Trombay runs the process for separating active components from the nuclear residue.
The technology for running waste management division at BARC was again indigenously designed by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) itself.
“The entire work for designing and developing the remote handling of robotics for nuclear front end and back end technologies of the Centre are devised by our own team of engineers”, Dr. D.N. Badodkar told ICN. Dr. Badodkar is the Assistant Director of the Department of Remote Handling and Robotics at BARC.
The Centre has now got its gamut of pre-service and in-service inspection and manipulation technologies. These include suspendable servo manipulator for remote removal or adjustment of objects in relatively inaccessible areas, automated guided vehicles etc. With these accolades in its kitty, the Department of Robotics aims at futuristic gadgets like wearable exoskeletons, Bio-chip arrayer, human brain mapping and others.
And there are a number of Areas marked with itemized numbers at the entire BARC facility in Trombay. So, Area 28 is real. But, there is a huge room filled with nuclear residue waiting to be reprocessed, not some alien technology.
