Radiation waste: DU Chemistry dept head retires,probe on

According to a source in the university,Parmar’s retirement is not connected with the latest controversy surrounding the auction of radioactive waste — he had reportedly applied under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme earlier.

A faculty member said Parmar is slated to join an institution in the US. “He had told me last week that he would leave the country in a weeks’ time,” the faculty member said. “He could leave any time now — his family is already in the US.”

Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental,though,called Parmar’s immediate relocation to the US a “rumour”.

Pental refused to discuss the course of action if the three-member inquiry committee formed by the university found Parmar guilty.

Experts and the Delhi Police had,on Wednesday,traced the source of the radioactive material (Cobalt-60) found in West Delhi’s Mayapuri scrap market to a laboratory in DU’s Chemistry department. One person has died and at least two others are stated to be critical following exposure to radiation at the scrap market.

Meanwhile,documents with Newline show Parmar had proposed the auction of the Gamma Irradiator this January 20. In a letter to Pental,he said the department needed to demolish one block to construct a new block named ‘TR Seshadri Block’.

In its only meeting on February 6 this year,a 10-member committee gave permission to dispose “obsolete equipment,apparatus and furniture”.

The Pro V-C approved the auction on February 15,and DU’s Engineering department notified it the following day. The radioactive nature of one of the “obsolete” equipment is mentioned in none of the communiqués.

A team from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board inspected a room where the Physics department keeps its radioactive sources. Pits in the room,where a Radium-Beryllium source was kept,was flooded in end-January,though the cause of flooding is not known. “There were minor discrepancies in the pit; there’s nothing to fear,” AERB’s Raju Kumar was quoted by PTI.

Sources said Physics HoD D S Kulshreshtha had been informed on February 1 and 2 about it. A letter was sent to Pental and Kulshreshtha on February 19. The letter also warned of a possible crack in the glass container used to store the radioactive source.

No action was taken.

‘Uranium never dumped on campus’
The Delhi University and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) have rejected claims by a faculty member of the Chemistry department that 20 kg of uranium was “dumped” inside the campus in 1986. “This is wrong. If 20 kg of uranium was dumped somewhere in the campus,it would not have been possible for us to sit here,” Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental said. AERB’s Raju Kumar also said there was no evidence about radioactive material being dumped in campus. Pental said the Chemistry department had auctioned 50 cylinders in the last three years “but they were not hazardous as claimed by certain reports”. ENS