‘Remove nuclear power plants from list of red category industries

The Director of Health, Safety and Environment Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), D.K. Aswal, said on Wednesday, that the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change should remove ‘nuclear power plants’ from the list of ‘red category of industries.’

The Director of Health, Safety and Environment Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), D.K. Aswal, said on Wednesday, that the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change should remove ‘nuclear power plants’ from the list of ‘red category of industries.’

Speaking at the inaugural session of the three-day 35th national conference of the Indian Association for Radiation Protection (IARP) at Mangalore University, Mr. Aswal said that that nuclear energy is a very clean and eco-friendly energy. “How can a clean energy can be put under red category by our own ministry,” he questioned.

The theme of the conference was ‘Radiation Protection for Sustainable Nuclear Energy and Adapting to Climate and Technological Changes.’

Stating that a low dosage of radiation is not harmful to health, Mr. Aswal held that this actually acted like a vaccination.

He said that words ‘radiation protection’ should be replaced with ‘adoptive radiation safety’. ‘Radiation protection’ is required only for high doses and not for low doses.

K. Siddappa, former Vice-Chancellor, Bangalore University, M. Vijaya Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, Yenepoya (Deemed to be University), K. Raju Mogaveera, Registrar (administration) of Mangalore University and N. Karunakara, convener of the conference spoke.