Alarm bells were sounded at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here at 9 a.m. on Friday when a leak from a medical consignment that was thought to be radioactive, was reported in the cargo area. The Emergency Operations Centre of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority alerted all emergency support functionaries, who cordoned off the area.
Personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) reached the site to contain the situation.
After preliminary investigations, Sekhar Basu, Director of BARC, Mumbai, told The Hindu that “reports of a radioactive leak turned out to be a false alarm. A package arrived from a foreign country carrying Iodine 131, which is used in radiotherapy for thyroid. Next to these containers was another container carrying N Venal Pyrodine, which is not radioactive, that had leaked.”
Correspondent Jaideep Deo Bhanj tweets from New Delhi:
Delhi airport says there is no threat to passengers due to >#radioactive leak of medical consignment. >@DelhiConnect
— JAIDEEP DEO BHANJ (@Jaideepdeobhanj) >May 29, 2015
The leaked material -- Sodium iodide 131 -- is used for treatment of hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancers via >@BShajan>@DelhiConnect
— JAIDEEP DEO BHANJ (@Jaideepdeobhanj) >May 29, 2015
``The fault was in the packing and the involved parties need to be questioned,’’ says senior official via >@BShajan>@DelhiConnect
— JAIDEEP DEO BHANJ (@Jaideepdeobhanj) >May 29, 2015
Agencies add:
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, while addressing a press conference in New Delhi, said the leakage has been “plugged”.
A team of atomic energy department has also reached the spot, the Home Minister said.
Sources said four packets, out of the total 10, of a yellow-coloured liquid was suspected to have spread out of its sanitised container after the consignment landed at the cargo area of the airport at about 4:35 a.m. after which a special squad of the National Disaster Response Force team was called in to check and contain it.
NDRF chief O.P. Singh said a special 10-member team from its base in Dwarka has been rushed to the spot and is “sanitising” the area.
“Radioactive leak very, very small. There is nothing to panic and there is no effect on the passenger area,” Mr. Singh said.
The cargo complex has been vacated by the officials as a preventive measure.
Airport officials said the material was imported for use in medical purpose by a multi-speciality hospital.
The packets, containing the material, bore the markings class-II liquid and a chemical component of Sodium.
An airport source denied media reports that leak was large and said no people had suffered any radioactive contamination. The airport was later due to put out a statement.
A look at other radioactive-based mishaps in India:
1993
>1993: Retrieving radioactive material
Efforts to retrieve three radioactive sources stolen by some persons from a company on the Chennai's outskirts and dropped in the Cooum river.
2002
>2002: Radiography camera lost
In July 2002, a radiography camera kept in a locked briefcase, was lost in a public bus in which the radiography personnel of an agency were travelling. The AERB officials and the police searched the entire length of the highway they had travelled, in vain.
2010
>2010: 16 cobalt pencils recovered from Mayapuri
The National Radiation Emergency Response team recovered all the radioactive Cobalt—60 sources from a Gamma cell which was scattered in a scrap yard at Mayapuri in Delhi, exposing eight persons to radiation.
2011
>2011: Kakrapar n-power station under AERB scanner
Kakrapar Atomic Power Station in Gujarat has come under the scanner of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board for a ’minor incident’ of radiation exposure to four workers.
2012
>2012: Another tritium leak at Rawatbhata nuclear station
Leak reported at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station at Rawatbhata near Kota, exposing workers to tritium radiation. Four workers were exposed to tritium radiation in July 19.
