Govt admits to heavy water leak in RAPS

The minister said though the limit on the tritium discharge was exceeded, the annual radiation to the public due to this release was estimated to be less than 25 microsievert compared to the annual limit of 1000 microsievert prescribed by the AERB.

This is the only incident in the last three years where specified limits was exceeded.

In another incident, at Madras Atomic Power Station unit 2, a heavy water leak due tofailure of a seal plug during inspection of coolant channel led to release of some radioactivity on March 26 this year. But the release was within specific limits, the minister said.

In reply to a related question, she said government would re-examine uranium processing plants as a `matter of abundant caution’ in the wake of the recent nuclear accident in Japan.