ANUMUKTI A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO NON-NUCLEAR INDIA Vol 2 No 2& 3 October & Dece' 88 WINDS OF CHANGE ? Sometime in the beginning of this century, alded the coming of age of the antinuclear move- Gopal Krishna Gokhale remarked, "What Bengal ment in India. It showed rather Impressively, that thinks today, rest of India thinks tomorrow." even on narrow technical grounds, the antinucle- Times Change. Today we live in the global village. ar spokespersons well able to hold their own What the Russian leadership thinks in the morn- against the best 0 that the nuclear establish- ing is well on its way to becoming the official ment can offer. Indian dogma before noon. Today's key word : The major demand voiced at Bangalore was GLASNQST. for free and unrestricted access to information. Thus, after four decades of close-door opera- To a very limited extent, this demand was con- tion, of being answerable only to the Prime minis- ceded. The Indian atomic anergy chief, Dr. M. R. ter, even the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) Srinivasan agreed to make available reports on has felt the need to justify its activities to the some nuclear establishments. This piecemeal general public. As is well known, leopards do not approach is not enough. What we need and need change their spots. Neither do nucleocrats. Their right now is free and easy access to all Informa- prefered mode of educating the public has been tion. The 1962 Atomic Energy Act is a disgrace. to organise a series of lavishly funded seminars No 'peaceful' programme need hide behind its entitled "Atoms for Peace, Power and Prosperity." cloak. For Glasnost to be more than a mere buz- In these tamashas more than half the time is zword, sections 3c, 7 and 18 of this infamous act spent on enunciating the various uses of need to be scrapped forthwith. radioisotopes in nuclear medicine, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and the like. Not a word is said about the fact that all the radioisotopes used for these many purposes, come from the research reactors in Trombay and have nothing to do with the real reason behind these public relation exer- clses - the need to 'sell' the vastly expanded pro- AN APOLOGY gramme of power generation. This issue of Anumukti Is appearing after an The "National Workshop on Nuclear Power inexcusably long delay. Circumstances conspired with Special Reference to Kalga" held in to play a cruel Joke. There were deaths in the Bangalore on December 10 and 11, was in stark family, pressure of other work like the National contrast to these stage managed exercises. Workshop of Kaiga and finally we had to shift our Organised by the Karnataka state government, it residence from Varanasi to Vedchhl. We deeply allowed for almost equal time between the antag- regret the very late publication of this double onists and the protagonists of nuclear power. issue. Readers will hopefully also excuse the very The workshop - the first of Its kind to do so - her- dated appearance of some of the articles. DISASTROUS DRILL If the way things went at Tarapur during the gency was declared. He reached the ECR at 10.50 disaster management exercise of the Tarapur am. This considering that it was an emergency. Atomic Power Station (TAPS) on October 8 are Pingulkar seemed to be going about the whole any indication, then the residents of the sur- thing as if he was attending just another function rounding village did a wise thing by fleeing. It is where he was asked to perform the role of the another matter that the Department of Atomic chief guest. Energy (DAE) ex udes confidence on the infalli- Apart from the essential presence of these bility of the TAPS reactor. officials, the participation of the locals during the The whole exercise has brought to light that drill was also lacking. The panicky villagers, in in case and DAE officials do not fail to stress that the midst of the melee, had "evacuated" them- there won't be a "in case'!— of a radiation leak at selves. TAPS, only providence can save the farmers and There were many reasons for the panic, the fisherman of the Palghar taluka of Thane district, main being disinformation. It was quite important 120 km away from Bombay. that the message of the drill and its necessity be However, the blame for the failure of the brought home to the common man. This message exercise has to be shared by the DAE, the district percolated down: but in an unexpected fashion. administration and the state government. Also The Collector claimed to have met about 500 the various agencies under them proved how teachers from the five villages, specially chosen incapable they would be In case of a real disaster. for the exercises, and explained to them that The seriousness of the whole exercise was there was going to be a drill. After that the teach- ignored and it was with an air of lightheartedness ers were supposed to have Informed the students that the entire drill was conducted. So much so who on their part, were to inform their parents. that an Atomic Energy Regulation Board (AERB) But the whole procedure failed. observer, who was on site along with scores of The TAPS officials themselves were unsure other observers, remarked, "Saturday's TAPS about the distribution of an emergency informa- exercise was a sort of a mela." tion pamphlet which seemed to have caused A colorful tent, tea, cool drinks and a lunch more fear among some villagers who laid their session was spread out for officials of various hands on It. While some TAPS officials said that organisations, local and an overdose of the local the pamphlets - in English and Hindi - were not press corps, along with a few from Bombay gath- meant to reach down to every villager but only ered at the site. Absolute chaos and confusion upto the sarpanch level who in turn would prevailed. explain It to the villagers'xerox copies were avail- The AERB official further pointed out that, able with some villagers who could not under- according to regulations, the first man to be in stand it. charge of the situation once a site emergency is Another slip-up on part of the officials with declared should be the TAPS superintendent. regard to the pamphlet distribution was the illus- And the man to take Over from him the moment tration of an owl on the pamphlet with the head- an off-site emergency Is declared should be the ing "Words to the wise: Be prepared." Among the Collector of Thane district. However, while it was villagers, an owl is regarded as an omen of required of TAPS superintendent, K. calamity. Nanjudeswaran, to sit In the emergency control, The exodus started on September 5, three room (ECR) set up at the Environmental Survey days before the drill. The first to leave were the Laboratory, 14 km away from TAPS, till the comparatively affluent people of the villagers, arrival of the Collector he was out for most of the and the poor followed them. time in the mela, the AERB observer alleged. On September 7 morning, TAPS officials visit- Thane Collector G. B. Pingulkar was informed ed the villages. A village elder of Unbhat claimed of the disaster at 8.15 pm, when the off-site emer- that one official had stated : "We will release 26 some gas. for about 10 minutes, but nothing will The local press corps also added fuel to the happen." fire and disinformation, such as five people killed after falling out of overcrowded trains, and On September 6 and 7, police vans mounted 95,000 tickets sold at Boisar railway station, were with public address system went round the vil- also reported. Local villagers also blamed some lages announcing that there was nothing to of the Palghat fortnightlies for creating panic. worry and "Strict action" would be taken against rumour mongers. Inspite of the warning, there were a few who stayed back to "guard their houses". A woman But by now the people became more suspi- said, "One day we all have to die. I want to die cious and panic had set in strong. here." More rumours made their way into the vil- Since then, people have started returning to lages. One was that there would be a Bhopal type their houses. They are cursing the government, disaster. The villagers also had Chernobyl in TAPS and all other connected with the drill. The mind, a disaster they had come to know through attitude prevailing in the villagers is that the next television. time there is a drill, they wont run away. Courtesy : Shrikant Shenoy, The Indian Post I7/1088 RUN, RABBITS, RUN On October 8, 1988 the country's nuclear In the case of TAPS, more than 60 percent of authorities organised an emergency drill at the the villagers turned out to be unbelievers in the Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS). The evac- assurances deployed by Indian nuclear experts. uation drill was designed to train the population Bus stations and railway platforms were packed in the villages in the vicinity of the reactor on with people getting out of the area. Schools and how they should respond In the case of a nuclear shops were shut, streets deserted. accident. India looked on at Bharat in chagrin, and The experiment failed. In advance, Much fumed. before it was even tried. They shouldn't have been that surprised. As The Indian Post reported in its edition of Aren't we soon going to commemorate 4 years of October 9, "over 80,000 people from several vil- the Bhopal gas tragedy, which alas we have lages around the TAPS deserted their homes and almost forgotten as an event.