Limits to growth (of toxic waste)

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Ameer Hamza
Anxiety over the Hungarian waste reservoir that gave way under its toxic load, and the likelihood of the slurry reaching Europe's second largest river, the Danube, and contaminating Croatia, Serbia, Romania and the rivers of at least six countries in the region, had kept Eastern Europe on tenterhooks over the past fortnight. One of the walls of the gigantic depot, meant to hold effluent from an aluminium production factory, had developed a crack early October, releasing about one million cubic metres of sludge that tore through seven villages in at least three localities, according to Reuters. As of last Monday seven people were reported killed and at least 123 were injured or made sick. The speed of the toxic flow toppled cars and wreaked havoc in houses. Some people were even reported missing. Emergency was declared in Hungary and the Prime Minister appealed fervently, not for money, but for immediate expert help. As the cracked widened later, the Hungarian government was reported to be racing to build a five-metre dam to contain the waste - for the time being, till a sustainable solution can be found.
There's food for thought here for those who make light of the problems of industrial or any other waste in one's own or the neighbour's yard. Bangladesh and India share over fifty common rivers, and we are at the receiving end of all the pollution upstream (not to forget the dumping going on daily downstream as well). The most to be feared is from India's nuclear industry. According to India's anti-nuclear activists, the spent fuel from their reactors pose more frightening scenarios in the neighbourhood, considering the general carelessness seen in the disposal of radioactive waste. This, mark you, goes on contaminating the environment for thousands of years.
Under the latest US-India deal, we are told 24 light water reactors (LWR) are to be imported and another 12 home-made ones, with pressurised heavy water, are to be installed along the Indian coasts. Virtually nothing is mentioned about the intractable problems that further generation of nuclear waste is going to pose for the region, or how it is going to be dealt with. The Indian nuclear industry's callousness in waste management is well known. Take for example its handling of the uranium mining zone in arid Jadugoda - meaning, ironically, the Magic Fields - in the depressed state of Bihar. Ever since mining and milling began in the mid sixties, Jadugoda and its neighbouring villages have been open to poisoning by heavy metals and radiation due to UCIL's (Uranium Corporation of India Limited) shoddy production and waste disposal methods. Tens of thousands have to live steeped in radioactive uranium tailings (waste) that UCIL leaves behind after extracting the fissionable material and forwarding it to Hyderabad to be turned into fuel rods.
Since India gained the status of an atomic power, production of yellowcake or raw uranium, has gone up significantly. Over 2000 tonnes are said to be mined every day, which means huge piles of waste building up. Depending on the concentration of the fissionable uranium, some 200 to 40,000 tonnes of tailings are said to be generated per tonne of uranium oxide extracted. And what does UCIL do? It simply dumps it into an open pond, which dries up too often, allowing uranium dust to blow with the wind and pollute nearby villages. People are even found using the pond, unaware of the hazards. One media report about a decade ago found that barely a third of the workers at the uranium drying plant had the mandatory masks on - to prevent inhalation of the carcinogenic dust.
Over the past forty years or so Jadugoda has turned into a nuclear nightmare. Researchers studying the health effects of radioactive pollution suspect that the incidence of congenital defects, miscarriage, stillbirths, blood, bone, lung and skin cancers and other unidentified diseases reported from this area have something to do with radiation and heavy metal poisoning. UCIL and the government of India have of course been denying that there are links. Some years ago, anti-nuclear activists and local inhabitants had made news protesting UCIL's plan to set up another nuclear waste dump in the area, which is about 250 km from Kolkata, and not too far away from Bangladesh. Considering the wind, rain and common waters, cross-border contamination, and with it the burden of radiation-induced morbidity and illnesses, can hardly be ruled out.
The US Atomic Energy Commission had recognised as early as 1957 that uranium mill tailings, not properly managed, are extremely hazardous both on account of the radioactivity and the chemicals used in the extraction process, such as, cyanide, arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and other poisons which contaminate the environment - by leaching, seepage and blown dust - getting into groundwater, streams and rivers and drinking water supplies.
Citizens groups should educate themselves and wake up to the terrible hazards threatening the neighbourhood.