The Hindu : National : No damage to BARC facility in Srinagar attack

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Friday, Jul 27, 2007
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No damage to BARC facility in Srinagar attack

T.S. Subramanian

Hand grenades thrown at CRPF units, seven jawans hurt

No spillage of radioactive yellow-cake
No change in background radiation

CHENNAI: The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre facility did not suffer any damage in Thursday’s terrorist attack on the BARC campus in Srinagar, according to a spokesman of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). All BARC personnel working there are safe.

The big campus, which also houses some units of the Central Reserve Police Force and residences of CRPF families, came under attack in the morning. One of the two terrorists threw hand-grenades at the CRPF units. In the fire-fight that ensued, both terrorists were killed. Seven CRPF jawans were injured.

Asked what work the BARC facility did, S.K. Malhotra, head, Environment and Public Awareness Division, DAE, said it used cobalt-60 as a source for irradiating food items, especially fruits, to preserve them for a longer period.

The irradiation facility was originally a big one. However, after militancy took root in Jammu and Kashmir, the BARC scaled it down and relocated some units and staff in the BARC at Trombay, Mumbai. The vacant space and buildings were given to the CRPF.

Trailer overturns

In another incident related to the DAE, a trailer transporting 62 drums of radioactive yellow-cake (magnesium diuranate), overturned at Narsannapeta in Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday morning. The container was loaded on another trailer and it left for the Nuclear Fuel Complex, (NFC), Hyderabad, on Thursday afternoon.

The drums were intact and there was no spillage of the yellow-cake, Mr. Malhotra said. DAE personnel, who reached the site, found that there was no change in the levels of background radiation.

The overturned trailer was transporting the container from the Uranium Corporation of India mill at Jaduguda in Jharkhand. It fell into fields when the driver swerved to the right as a bus overtook the vehicle from the left side on National Highway 5. CRPF personnel were escorting the trailer.

Natural uranium ore mined at several places in Jharkhand is processed and milled into yellow-cake at Jaduguda. The yellow-cake, which looks like thick slurry, is sent in drums kept in a container to the NFC, where it is converted into fuel rods. It is these rods that fuel nuclear power reactors.

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