It's
a hot summer afternoon in a small settlement in eastern India. Four womenfolk
wearing saris sit in a loop in front of a mud house, with smooth white walls
and pink borders adorned with small shards of mirror. Close by, a woman pumps
up water from a tube well. She then washes a miner's uniform that belongs to
her husband, who works in the nearby uranium mines. Suddenly a gust of wind blows
black dust from the mines into the courtyard. The women cover their faces and rush
to cover the pots of water so these do not get contaminated.
Not
too far from where the women were sitting Sanjay Gope crawls across a dusty
courtyard of the low-slung, mud-walled house he shares with 10 members of his
family. Heaps of cow dung dry in the heat and chickens rest in the shade. His
grandfather, Debnandan Gope, watches solemnly as the boy struggles, face lined
with sweat, one thin forearm, then another, digging into the dirt, his legs and
feet carving a meandering trail behind him. About 10 years old, Sanjay could
move normally as a toddler until seizures began to squeeze life from his arms
and legs. Now, when no family member can assist him, he is left to crawl around
the ground like a snake. An older sister, Sunita, too had experienced a similar
collapse. Her limbs had grown so deformed that she couldn’t feed or bathe
herself before she died few years ago at 13.
Across
the path that runs by Sanjay’s house, Rakesh Gope, another member of Sanjay’s
tribe, sits on a dirt floor under the rusting corrugated roof of an open-air
room where his grandfather is sleeping. A small and puny boy with light brown
eyes, he attempts to wave but his hands only flap in a spastic bout. He is
another 10-year-old unable to walk on his own.
No
one exactly knows how many children like this live here and in nearby
villages—only that they are all too easy to find.
Welcome to Jadugoda - home to happenings which in the name of self-sufficiency are crimes against humanity
Sanjay
and Rakesh live near Jadugoda, a town of 19,500 people about 1,370km from New
Delhi, in East Singhbhum in district in
Jharkhand. Once dotted with lush tribal forests, Jadugoda is today a troubling portrait of modern India
- its outskirts a postcard of pastel-painted mud houses scattered amid tidy
rice fields, and its center the hub of India’s uranium mining industry that is
fueling a nuclear power boom never seen before. It is here that the state-run
Uranium Corporation of India Limited's (UCIL) is licensed by the Government of
India to gouge hundreds of thousands of tonnes of uranium ore out of the ground
each year, while just over a hill, an easy walk from the village, 193 acres of ponds
holding mildly radioactive waste stand largely unguarded save for
no-trespassing signs. The UCIL is a public-sector enterprise under the
Department of Atomic Energy and is responsible for mining uranium ore that is
processed and fed to the country's nuclear power plants.
Sanjay’s
70-year-old grandfather, a bare-chested, barefoot man rendered lean by hard
work and a sparse diet, offers an observation shared by many here—that before
the mines came, children did not crawl around in the dirt and die. He might be
dismissed as an illiterate, grieving relative of a crippled boy and a dead girl
except that outsiders, including the Jharkhand High Court and environmental
activist groups, suggest that he may be right. The High Court, in February
2014, had noted after filing a petition against the UCIL that children living
near the mines (UCIL mining site in Jadugoda) are born with swollen heads,
blood disorders and skeletal distortions.
The
Regional Chief Conservator of Forest, Jamshedpur (Jharkhand), had submitted on
record that in 2014, that UCIL had continued to operate the mines even after
the expiry of mining lease in violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980,
and therefore had directed UCIL to stop all work on forest land. Accordingly,
the Divisional Forest Officer, Jamshedpur had directed UCIL to stop mining on
forest land.
As
per UCIL's website it is currently operating six underground mines in Bagjata,
Jaduguda, Bhatin, Narwapahar, Turamdih and Mohuldih and one open pit mine
Banduhurang in Jharkhand. Ore from these mines is processed in two plants at
Jaduguda and Turamdih.
Subsequently,
an expert forest panel of the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) too had
sought a detailed report on alleged violation of forest conservation Act and
mining lease at India's oldest uranium mine in Jaduguda, operating since 1967.
It has also deferred the Uranium Corporation of India Limited's (UCIL)
application for renewal of forest clearance that is required to operate the mine
on 135 hectares of forest land, with 100 hectares of underground mining and the
rest over-ground.
The
panel noted that mining lease was granted for a period of twenty years between
1997 and 2007 but later, it could not get the lease renewed. UCIL though has
claimed that Department of Mines and Geology, Jharkhand, has granted mining
lease renewal up to 2027. The expert panel while deferring recommendation for
forest clearance has asked the state government to submit a report on violation
of lease within two weeks along with present status of forest land in the
proposed area. The panel has also asked the state authorities to clarify on the
discrepancy in the dates of lease renewal and specify the period for which the
mine was operating without a valid lease in violation of the Forest
Conservation Act, 1980. In addition to this, the state government has to also
examine and submit a detailed report on under what authority UCIL was allowed
to carry out the mining operations without approval of the MoEF.
The Poisoning of the People
The
process used for uranium extraction involves conversion into a slurry from which
the precious metal is extracted. The rest of the sludge is sent into to the
“tailing ponds” which are supposed to hold the highly radioactive slurry. The
tailing ponds are often unable to hold all the slurry and frequently overflow,
especially during the monsoons. More radioactive uranium seeps into the ground
and contaminates the groundwater and rivers. The river, which runs past
Jaduguda, is reportedly met by the murky outflow from the UCIL mine workings.
Here, people wash vegetables, sow and bathe in this extremely poisonous water. The
locals are forced to use the downstream river waters for everything ranging
from washing, bathing, sowing and irrigation. Nowhere in the region does one
see warning boards. It is an open invitation to use the resources here and get
poisoned.
It
is from here that the whole uranium contamination/ poisoning cycle takes a
massive leap into the food chain spreading far and wide via crops, fruits, and
animals. The grass growing here is highly radioactive and when animals graze,
it enters their bodies and contaminates the milk and meat. In short, uranium
enters every part of the ecosystem and continues to spread further and further
via the rivers, fish, the vegetables and fruits grown there and thus, what
starts as a local mine affects a vast region.
A
report authored by the journalist Adrian Levy for the United States (U.S) based
'The Center for Public Integrity' (TCPI), released in December 2015, claims
radioactive and toxic waste have been leaking out of the uranium mine in
Jaduguda, affecting people, livestock, rivers, forests and agricultural produce
in the area. The said report, accuses India's nuclear establishment of
systematically overlooking evidence that points to a radiation hazard at the
Jaduguda uranium mine. It relies on accounts of locals and activists, studies
that have come out since the 1990s and claims filed in court to say that mining
has exposed workers and villagers to radiation, heavy metals and other
carcinogens, including arsenic. Toxins leaching into underground aquifers and
the Subarnarekha river could be contaminating the food chain, from fish to
vegetables, the report mentions. The case files include epidemiological and
medical surveys warning of a high incidence of infertility, birth defects and congenital
illnesses among women living near the industry's facilities. These files also
detail levels of radiation that in some places reach almost 60 times the safe
levels. One of the "hard evidence of the toxic footprint" the report
cites is a 2009 paper authored by a team lead by physicist Dipak Ghosh from
Kolkata's Jadavpur University. The study had collected water from Subarnarekha
and adjacent wells, and found some of the samples had levels of radioactive
alpha particles that were 160% higher than safe WHO's safe limits. (The World
Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is
concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948,
headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.). The report also details tests done by a
Hiroaki Koide, a Japanese nuclear engineer who carried back samples from the
area to Japan. Koide said radiation levels in villages close to the mines and
in residential areas near the tailing ponds exceeded international safe limits
by a factor of 10. The report says Koide also confirmed that uranium rock and
finely ground mine tailings had been used as ballast for road leveling and
house building. The report also documents incidents of 'radioactive leaks',
such as the bursting of a pipe carrying toxic slurry on December 24, 2006. The
report says that the slurry eventually kept pouring into a tributary of the
Subarnarekha for nine hours, causing shoals of dead fish to float on the
surface, and no government investigation was ever undertaken.
Another recent study of about 9,000 people in villages near the mines has documented cases of congenital deformities, infertility, cancer, respiratory problems and miscarriages. Nuclear scientist Sanghmitra Gadekar, who was responsible for conducting the survey on radioactive pollution in villages near the mines, says there was a higher incidence of miscarriages and still births. "Also, laborers were given only one uniform a week. They had to keep on wearing it and then take it home. There, the wives or daughters wash it in a contaminated pond, exposing them to radiation. It's a vicious circle of radioactive pollution in Jadugoda," he said.
An NHRC Member Justice D. Murugesan has observed that the contents of the report of the U.S. based news organisation, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of the right to health of the workers and local residents, besides damage to the environment, flora and fauna.
In February 2014, the Honourable High Court in the State of Jharkhand had filed a petition (a petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity) that pointed to the mines operated by UCIL since 1967. Shocked by photographs of the area’s sick and deformed children in the Indian press and elsewhere, the court ordered the company and relevant government agencies to explain what measures they were taking to protect the health of those living in villages around the mines.
The
UCIL and India's Atomic Energy Commission have however consistently refuted
such claims and maintained that operations at Jaduguda are safe.
The
story however doesn't end here. Radioactive waste from Nuclear Fuel Complex at
Hyderabad too is transported back to Jadugoda by road and dumped in tailing
ponds.
Just
four decades back, Jadugoda was a quiet and lush green locality with no dust or
radiation pollution. The people here lived a quiet rural life. But things
changed when the Indian government started mining operations here in 1967.
“Deformities are prevalent in the age group
born after mining started there,” said M.V. Ramana, a physicist and India
nuclear-energy specialist at Princeton University’s Nuclear Futures Laboratory,
in Princeton, New Jersey, who has written extensively about Jadugoda. “It’s not
so among older people. That something is affecting them is very clear. It may
be radiation, it may be some other heavy metals that contaminate the water. We
don’t know for sure.”
That’s
the issue for residents. Neither the company nor any government agency in their
memory has conducted the kind of comprehensive study that could get to the
bottom of what’s sickening and killing their kids. That would include counting
the number of sick and the dead, and systematically testing for root
causes—assembling genetic and medical histories, collating the results of any
previous doctors’ exams and testing for environmental factors like water and
soil contamination at their homes and villages.
Few
people in Jadugoda actually want the uranium mine to go away. Like so many
people around the world who live near a nuclear facility, their livelihoods are
now dependent on it. All they want is better protection, and compensation for
those of them who have been damaged. Instead what they get is secrecy and
intimidation. Many people are even afraid to talk. 
Ideally
and ethically, the whole land which was acquired for mining, blasting,
processing should have been out of bounds for people and the tailing ponds made
in such a manner that there is no seepage into the ground. It was the legal,
moral and ethical duty of UCIL to warn the locals about what was about to hit
them – uranium.
Uranium – its Known but Hidden Vulnerabilities
Uranium
is the heaviest naturally occurring element on earth. During mining of uranium,
naturally occurring radioactive substances are released, which are among the
most harmful materials known to science.
When
uranium break down it turns into another radioactive element called
protactinium. When protactinium disintegrates it turns into a likewise
radioactive element called thorium. When thorium breaks down it then turns into
radium; and when radium disintegrates it turns into radon gas. When radon gas
atoms break down, they turn into about half a dozen radioactive materials,
including polonium. In this progression, uranium finally ends up into a stable
substance, which is however highly toxic: lead. Incidentally, all the
radioactive decay products of uranium linger on in the crushed rock when
uranium is separated from the ore.
During
the extract uranium from the ground, miners dig up the rock, crush it and then leave
behind a finely powdered material – a radioactive waste called uranium
tailings. It has been reported that 85 percent of the radioactivity in the ore
remains behind in the uranium tailings. Unfortunately, the effective half-life
of this radioactivity is 80,000 years. This implies that in 80,000 years there
will be half as much radioactivity in these tailings as there is today.
As
these tailings are typically left behind on the surface of the earth, these get
blown away by the wind, washed by the rain into the water systems – underground
and terrestrial. How does anyone or any organization forever guard millions of tons
of radioactive tailings safely, and keep it from contaminating the environment?
Besides,
as the tailings remain there on the surface, these continually generate radon
gas. Radon being about eight times heavier than air, stays close to the ground,
but can drift along over 1,000 kilometers in just a few days in a light wind. As
it drifts along, the gas deposits on the vegetation, thus contaminating the
very base of the food chain. Study indicates that radon daughters can be found in
animals, fish and plants thousands of kilometers away from the site of uranium
mining.
Circa 2014
Jadugoda
mine has been out of production since 8th Sept. 2014, after Honorable Supreme
Court of India's observation on “deemed extension” on mining leases as illegal.
The UCIL management has since then been building consensus for reopening of the
mines in popular media. Media has been awash with statements of senior DAE
officials claiming that the closure of operations of uranium mines has so far
led to losses of over 19 tonnes of nuclear fuel, having a potential to produce
about 860 million units of electricity. The closure of Jadugoda mine of UCIL is
likely to impact nuclear power generation in the country, the media reports say.
India’s Energy Needs
and Nuclear Ambitions...
An
energy hungry India is heavily dependent on imports to meet its oil and gas
needs and is hungry to secure more of its own supplies, besides building
capacities in nuclear power generation.
India
has a flourishing and largely indigenous nuclear power programme and expects to
have 14.6 gigawatts of nuclear capacity on line by 2024 and 63 gigawatts by
2032. It aims to supply 25% of electricity from nuclear power by 2050.
UCIL,
not surprisingly, is constructing a new underground mine and process plant at
Tummalapalle in Andhra Pradesh and as part of its expansion is setting up new
mines and in Karnataka, Telanagana and Meghalaya.
Elsewhere in the World…
France
France
is actively looking to undo decades of nuclear power growth and instead boost
energy sources like wind, solar, and small hydro projects. French President
Francois Hollande has promised to limit the growth of the country’s nuclear
power, many older reactors have been targeted for decommissioning. On October
10, 2014 France’s parliament voted to begin moving to undo decades of nuclear
growth and to reduce its importance to the country’s energy mix. Over the next
11 years, France will reduce the amount of electricity coming from nuclear by
one-quarter — from 75 percent to 50 percent. To do that, estimates are that as
many as 20 of France’s 58 reactors would have to be closed, and the French are
willing to risk that.
Denmark
Denmark
is a frontrunner when it comes to generating energy from renewable sources. As
of May 2014, renewable energy sources accounted for around 25 percent of
Denmark's total energy consumption, and by 2020, the country targets to produce
70 percent of its energy from renewable sources. By 2050, the country plans to
meet 100 percent of its energy needs with renewables, creating more jobs,
increasing exports and reducing its energy dependence.
According
to a spokesperson of the Danish energy agency Energistyrelsen, which manages
Denmark's energy policy, the country's resolve to completely resign from coal,
oil and gas by 2050 is realistic. With about 7,300 kilometers of coastline, the
settings for wind power in Denmark are significant. But offshore wind farms
alone are not adequate to meet Denmark’s energy demands, and therefore wind
power projects have also been extended on land. However in past, local
resistance to growing wind power plants has often prevented newer development. The
Danish government therefore, since 2008, has introduced new requirements that have
brought about greater acceptance of wind power in the country. Residents are
now compensated for any loss. If a Danish house loses its value because of a
wind turbine that has come up in its vicinity, the operator of the wind turbine
is not only required to compensate homeowners for that loss but also offer at
least 20 percent of the shares in the project to the affected local resident
community, thereby giving them a direct stake in the investment. Besides, the local resident community also receives
a direct allocation per megawatt of power generated. All these measures have
greatly increased acceptance of wind farms among the local community in the
country as they bring direct benefits to the community and its citizens, provided
they extend their support. Denmark is also looking into using heat pumps for
storage, so that when wind farms are generating excess capacity, the extra
electricity can be stored in the form of heat and later be used to heat homes
and businesses. Besides, harnessing wind
energy, Denmark has also progressively invested in solar energy systems. To
meet rest of Denmark's energy needs, the country also makes extensive use of
biomass, augmented by energy savings and efficiency.
Germany
Germans
have long been known as environmentally aware people. In 2011, Germany brought in
a new era of energy production, shifting from fossil and nuclear fuel to largely
wind and sun. In a opinion poll done in 2012, 61 percent of Germans had said that
they would be willing to pay more for electricity if it were to be generated
from renewable resources. Germany is fast switching off its nuclear plants t. Renewables
now generate around 27 percent of the country’s electricity, up from 9 percent just
about a decade ago.
The United States of America
Back
in In 1987, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in
the USA had recognized that prevailing occupational standards at that time for
radon exposure in the USA did not provide sufficient protection for workers and miners at risk of lung cancer from
prolonged radon decay exposure. The NIOSH had therefore recommended that the
occupational exposure limit for radon decay products should be reduced
considerably. To this date however, this recommendation by NIOSH has not been
incorporated into an enforceable standard by the Department of Labor’s Mine
Safety and Health Administration or the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration.
Occupational Hazards in
Uranium Mining and Safety Measures
For
workers involved in mining (uranium and other ores) there is potential exposure
to naturally occurring radioactive materials. As occupational health hazards,
monitoring and then controlling the risks is necessary.
Australian
and Canadian radiation safety regulations today are among the most
comprehensive and stringent in the world, and as a result radiation doses at
Australian and Canadian uranium mines are well within regulatory limits. Most
uranium mines in Australia and Canada have ISO 14001 certification.
In
Australia, mining operations are undertaken under the country's Code of
Practice and Safety Guide for Radiation Protection and Radioactive Waste
Management in Mining and Mineral Processing, administered by state governments,
which sets strict health standards for radiation and radon gas exposure, for
both workers and members of the public. Australian uranium mines have mostly
been open cut and therefore naturally well ventilated.
Similarly,
in Canada, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is responsible for regulating
uranium mining as well as other aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. Besides,
provincial regulations also apply concurrently, and set strict health standards
for both miners and local people. Canadian underground mines are ventilated
with powerful fans. Radon levels are kept at a very low and certainly safe
level in uranium mines.
Safety measures
Precautions
prescribed by the World Nuclear Association to be exercised during the mining
and milling of uranium ores to protect the health of the workers include:
·
Good forced
ventilation systems in underground mines to ensure that exposure to radon gas
and its radioactive daughter products is as low as possible and does not exceed
established safety levels.· Efficient dust control, because the dust may contain radioactive constituents and emit radon gas.
· Limiting the radiation exposure of workers in mine, mill and tailings areas so that it is as low as possible, and in any event does not exceed the allowable dose limits set by the authorities. This may imply that while mining of very high-grade ore, it is to be undertaken solely by remote control techniques and by fully containing the high-grade ore where practicable.
· The use of radiation detection equipment in all mines and plants.
· Imposition of strict personal hygiene standards for workers handling uranium oxide concentrate.
· Designated employees (those likely to be exposed to radiation or radioactive materials) are to be monitored for alpha radiation contamination and personal dosimeters are to be worn to measure exposure to gamma radiation.
· Routine monitoring of air, dust and surface contamination is undertaken.
Hope and Power for Humanity
There
is a growing realization among the global communities that nuclear power may
not be a viable solution to our energy problems. Humanity doesn't really need
it for electricity generation. For electricity generation all that is required is
to spin a wheel, and there are many ways of doing it - water power, wind power,
geothermal power, and the likes. There are also other methods for producing
electricity directly: solar photovoltaics, fuel cells, and so on. Human
communities in India and elsewhere need to come to a consensus over the need to
permanently decrease the radiation levels on the planet which they call their
home. This is one problem that humans do not need, they have enough already.
Requiem for Jadugoda
Jadugoda,
the small township in Jharkhand, where the UCIL has been mining uranium for
decades, may still be paying the price for India’s energy ambition. Therefore,
in the courtyard of a house in Jadugoda, two teenaged brother and sister with
crumpled limbs squat on the dirt floor and scoop rice with their hands from
bowls. But they cannot sing, they cannot even talk. In the village main street,
the torso of another boy mends bicycles, he will never be able to ride, because
when he was nine his legs suddenly began to bend and break, until they look now
as if they've been melted.
Disclaimer / Caveat: Whatever I have stated is publicly available information and does not represent the view of the firm I work for.
(This post is not copyrighted and may be reproduced freely with appropriate attribution of source)
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