From: guru@engin.umich.edu ( V. Guru Shankar)
Subject: Two Indian Reactors leaked Radioactivity..
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 14:27:56 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

UPI reports:
============

	NEW DELHI, India (UPI) -- Two research reactors in Bombay that produce
weapons-grade plutonium leaked radioactive water into the soil and the
adjacent Arabian Sea last year, but the matter was never made public,
according to a newspaper reports published Friday.
	The Indian Express, the country's largest chain of newspapers, quoted
senior nuclear officials, who it did not identify, as saying all the
soil in the contaminated area had been removed and sent in 325 drums to
a radioactive waste disposal facility.
	It said water containing the radioactive Cesium-137 had been
discharged into the Arabian Sea by the reactors.
	The reactors, Dhruva and Cirus, use Arabian Sea water as a secondary
coolant and then pump it back into the ocean. Their primary coolant is
heavy water, which is made by a complex and costly process to contain a
significantly higher proportion of heavy hydrogen atoms.
	An official of the Bhabha Atomic Research Complex, where the two
reactors are situated, told United Press International on condition of
anonymity there were some safety-related problems at Cirus and Dhruva
but the newspaper account was ``an exaggerated portrayal of those
problems by a workers' union which the management has refused to
recognize.''
	He said the safety-related problems had been fixed and the earlier
discharge would have little effect on marine life in the Arabian Sea.
	The 100-megawatt Dhruva, one of the world's largest research
reactors, can produce at least 55 pounds of high-quality, weapons-usable
plutonium, according to P.K. Iyengar, head of India's nuclear program.
	The much smaller Cirus, a joint Canadian-Indian venture, provided the
plutonium for the nuclear device India detonated in 1974. Opened in
1960, Cirus has a capacity to produce 20 pounds of weapons-grade
plutonium.
	The plutonium that the two reactors produce is enough for India to
build seven nuclear bombs every year. India has refused to sign the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on grounds it is discriminatory but
says it has no plans to manufacture atomic arms.
	The Indian Express did not say when the leaks exactly occurred or
which reactor discharged radioactivity first. But it said the problems
were mainly concentrated in the aging Cirus.
	The newspaper said the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, an independent
agency that oversees compliance of nuclear installations with safety
regulations, had ordered reactor officials to submit a full report on
the leakage.
	Dhruva, named after a Hindu king who according to legend became a
star in the cosmos after his death, was built to replace Cirus. Nuclear
authorities, however, have sought to extend the life of Cirus.
	Soon after it began operating in 1985, Dhruva had to be shut down for
10 months because of excessive radioactivity in its coolant heavy water.
It was recommissioned after design changes, and has operated at full
capacity for the last four years without difficulty.
	Neither Dhruva and Cirus are open to inspection by the Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency. 


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