UCIL mines posing major radiation hazard: Report

In its preface, Bihar Legislative Council chairman Jabir Hussein alleged that the UCIL management was doing nothing to minimise the ill effects of radiation.

The committee had shifted 46 tribal families, affected by diseases including lukeamia and contortion of limbs, from the mining areas of east Singhbhum, the report said.

The UCIL management, however, contradicted the report saying the uranium ore found in Jadugoda area have a low content of the metal as compared to world standard and the radiation effect are confined to just a few feet from the mining area.

The committee has recommended a detailed survey of the ill effects of radiation from the uranium mines at Jadugoda by the Bhabha Atomic Reasearch Centre at the earliest in order to check the health hazards.

A survey conducted by the committee revealed abnormally high incidence rate of diseases like tuberculosis and cancer among the tribal populace living in areas adjacent to the Jadugoda uranium mines.

Quoting one Ishwar Soren of Chaticocha in east Singhbhum, the report says that most of the workers employed at the UCIL mines die of cancer or tuberculosis after retirement.

Another survey carried out by the state health department found 31 out of 712 people in the Jadugoda area suffering from health disorders like blood in cough, ulcer, swelling of bone joints, asthma, opthalmic diseases, arthritis etc.

According to the east Singhbhum district medical officer, excessive exposure to radiation from uranium might cause dermatitis, radium burns, intestinal ulceration, diarrhoea and tissue fibrosis. Chronic exposure, he said, could also cause premature ageing, aneamia, hypertension and cataracts.

The report said the UCIL8217;s measures to protect people from such hazards had so far remained confined only to those working in its mines.

However, UCIL officials claimed that the the grade of uranium content found in the ore in Jadugoda area lies from 0.04 to 0.03 which is even lower than that found in the ore available in Mizoram where the possibilities of uranium mining were yet to be explored.

UCIL chairman-cum-managing director J L Bhasin claimed that the radiation effects from the mines were so low that it could not cause any health hazard to human beings.

The environment committee report, however, suggested that the UCIL management evolve a better waste disposal system to minimise the effects of radiation.

UCIL is at the forefront of the fuel cycle of the nuclear power programme of the country. It meets the requirement of uranium for the pressurised heavy water reactors.