AERB moots mandatory checks for radiation

Checks for radiation may become mandatory for metal scrap if the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has its way.

The AERB, which has taken up the matter on a war-footing after 20 French workers were exposed to excessive radiation from elevator buttons made from steel sourced in India, has asked the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) that radiation checks be made mandatory.

AERB head (radiological safety division) S P Agarwal said, “We have given the recommendation to EEPC and the council would take it up with the ministries concerned.”

Agarwal said the checking should be done at all levels of value-addition. If the scrap or the raw material is contaminated then it would get passed on to the next levels also. It could be possible at the ports also.

Ex-EEPC chairman Rakesh Shah said, “We have been fighting for this issue for the last one-and-a-half years. We have asked the commerce ministry to come out with a regulation to make checking mandatory for scrap coming to the country.”

Agarwal said the investment needed for the checking apparatus was small but it was important because it would result in a financial loss for exporters.

The matter came to light a year back in a case of castings exports. The subject gained prominence recently after the elevator case where France’s Nuclear Safety Authority informed the AERB about the contamination. The lift buttons contained traces of radioactive Cobalt 60, which, in large quantities, can cause radiation sickness, skin burns and death.

In 2004, Bhushan Steel had unknowingly imported missile scrap from Iran, which exploded in the factory. Bhushan Steel managing director Neeraj Singal said since then the company imports shredded steel scrap from developed countries where checking is done at the loading ports. “We have become very cautious,” he said. AERB, on its part, is conducting programmes to spread awareness among different stakeholders.