Radiation incident at New Delhi

On 7th April, 2010 an event was brought to the notice of the Coordinator (Dr.B.K.Bhaumik) of  'Emergency Response Centre (ERC)', New Delhi functioning under Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.  It was related to a person from the iron scrap market of Mayapuri, New Delhi, undergoing treatment at hospital, exposed to high radiation dose.

ERC cordoned off the area, having high gamma radiation field (5000 times more than the background), with the help of Mayapuri Police station personals.

Four people hospitalized after exposure to radioactive material in New Delhi - Google search for ntdtv.org > World > Asia Pacific.

 http://ntdtv.org/en/news/world/asia/2010-04-10/939604010104.html

Teams from BARC Mumbai [Dr.K.S.Pradeepkumar, Chief Coordinator] and NPCIL, Narora detected the source Co-60 (cobalt-60) and removed them from the junk. But it was not clear (about the origin of the radiation source) as to how Co-60 entered into the scrap market.  It got the clue after a few days, when a radiation-survey of that area was undertaken during day time by ERC-Delhi team.  A different location, 1/2 km away from the earlier place, was found with 'high gamma radiation field'. The same night, ERC-Delhi Team [Shri B.R.Singh & Dr.B.K.Bhaumik], BARC Team, NPCIL Team & NDRF Team in combined operation became successful at 3 A.M in finding a cylindrical cage containing two Co-60 pencils.

This finding led to two important pathways : (i) lives saved from further radiation-exposure and (ii) root cause tracing by Delhi Police personals - Chemistry department of Delhi university sold 'Gamma Cell Irradiator'. 

The following file gives a glimpse of the activity :