Time to think outside the box

The descendents of most of our decision-makers live outside the country and would not have to suffer from any fallout -- hidden or apparent. As for the innocent public, they haven't the foggiest notion that radioactive fallout -- something they cannot smell, see or feel -- can do terrible and tangible harm to their health, the environment, and all life for generations to come, writes Nerun Yakub Our over-confident nuclear energy advocates should discard their blinkers and start seriously rethinking the nuclear energy option. The reasons are clear and compelling. When a country like Japan, so advanced in spiritual wisdom and material science, is virtually reeling under the impact of a crippled nuclear power plant ---- no matter what the reasons are ---- how can we, with our low-tech orientation and essentially myopic outlook, handle the situation, in the event of a big or small accident ? The advocates probably don't really care as long as their immediate interests are served. In any case, the descendents of most of our decision-makers live outside the country and would not have to suffer from any fallout ---- hidden or apparent. As for the innocent public, they haven't the foggiest notion that radioactive fallout ---- something they cannot smell, see or feel ----- can do terrible and tangible harm to their health, the environment, and all life for generations to come. How little the 'authorities' cared was proved many years ago when a rare newshound reported that leaked water from the cooling system of the nuclear research reactor at Savar was simply being collected in jars to be disposed of later ! 'What the public doesn't know doesn't hurt them,' seems to be the unwritten policy! Civil society groups who do care ought to take up the case against nuclear energy. Consider the problems emerging out of Japan's badly battered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The troubles have been proving far more intractable than what its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has been imagining. The company president could not take the strain of the crisis and criticism and had to be hospitalized. Under the impact of the March 11 quake-tsunami, the cooling systems of four of the six nuclear reactors at Fukushima collapsed, and at least one of the units seemed to be approaching a meltdown, if not already melted by last Wednesday. TEPCO has been struggling with a 'cooling dilemma' --- how to continue spraying enough water to keep the troubled units from over-heating, and how to drain the highly contaminated water without releasing it into the environment. But that radioactive water did leak out from the underground maintenance tanks was evident in the fact that radioactive iodine in the seawater near the plant was found to be 3,355 (up from 1,850 ) times the legal limit, according to last Wednesday's reports. And then plutonium was also detected in the soil, proof enough of at least a partial meltdown. TEPCO has been faulted with lacking transparency and giving contradictory and confusing information as well. Radioactivity in the troubled plant was said to be 'ten million times the normal level' by one official. Then it was revised as '100,000 times', claiming the temperature was just too hot to re-check! The Japanese cabinet secretary was unforgiving, 'Considering the fact that monitoring of radioactivity is a major condition to ensure safety, this kind of mistake is absolutely unacceptable,'he said. Radioactive contamination had soared to 1,000 millisieverts per hour, rendering it extremely hazardous for the struggling workers to remain exposed as long as the job needed. Experts tell us, a single dose of 1000 millisieverts, can cause temporary radiation sickness, including nausea and vomiting, and 100 millisieverts a year is considered the lowest level at which an increase in cancer is evident. Three workers, two of whom did not even have rubber boots on, stepped into the 2000 to 6000 millisieverts radioactive water, rising just below their ankles. They were released from medical care as they had 'no signs of injuries' but the National Institute of Radiological Sciences facility, where the three were sent, said they would be monitored by local clinics. Time will tell what the injuries will be for apart from the directly observable physical injury, 'ionising' radiation can wreck life at the molecular level, leading to cancers, birth defects and other health problems. At Bangladesh's socio-economic stage the above 'nicieties' are unheard of. Consider what a survey by the Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control Division of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy commission some years ago found. Most of the 38 industries that used radiological elements and equipment were extremely careless about maintaining the mandatory safety and radiation protection protocols. There is little to suggest that the industries in question had rectified themselves by now. Government departments and even autonomous organizations in the country are not exactly famous for enforcing rules and regulations and laws. Nuclear devices are used by foreign construction contractors in the gas and oil exploration sector, for irradiator and gas mantle production, for the measurement of moisture, laying gas pipe networks, installing chemical and power industries, building bridges and hundreds of other sectors. The said survey revealed that radiation safety measures were absent in almost 60 per cent cases of industrial radiography practices. Findings with regard to handling equipment and isotopes, monitoring radiation warning systems and the like were also not up to the mark. In some cases over 80 per cent of the workers handling nuclear equipment were found to be totally untrained. And there is no provision yet for employing a health physicist to take charge of the radiology or other departments that use nuclear isotopes. The survey did not seem to have anything to say regarding the utterly callous manner in which X-ray machines ( and other high-tech medical equipment that use various radioactive isotopes ) are installed and used throughout the country, with no regulation whatsoever as to how much is zapped into people and the environment, or whether it is at all necessary for diagnosis. The irresponsible manner in which they are generally handled should be of concern to decision-makers in the sector. Consider the case of a pipeline worker at the Bakhrabad Gas Systems Ltd, over two decades ago which illustrates how criminally negligent employers can be ---- in this case, an international construction company. The worker had been exposed to heavy radiation during his welding job in 1985. He had no idea his long bouts of sickness while on the job was due to severe radiation from the nuclear-tipped welding equipment. He worked without any protection and collapsed several times while at work. When environmental reporters brought his plight to public notice his fingers had already started getting 'eaten up' by radiation and had to be amputated. The long-term effects of radioactive contamination were crippling, giving him recurring headaches and drying up his blood vessels, among other health problems. This is just one example of gross negligence and it is quite likely that the careless practices of the majority of the industrial enterprises in the country are leaving many seriously ill and impaired by ionizing radiation. The BAEC has the authority to regulate and control all nuclear practices in the country as per the Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control Act 1993 and the Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control Rules 1997. Can these legal instruments at all protect people against radioactive hazards --- either from medical equipment or a nuclear power plant ? The public must be made fully aware of the dangers that ionizing radiation can pose, even when taking a 'few X-rays', for experts are now sanguine that there is no such thing as a 'safe' dose, even though it is sometimes necessary to diagnose or cure diseases. Nobody must be allowed to treat the mind-boggling powers of nuclear science with the complacency and carelessness observed in Bangladesh. As Japan works to contain the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, an official with the nuclear agency was heard saying that it was time to think outside the box. Let us educate ourselves, please.