Handling of radioactive materials at Ctg Port
It is reported that a 36-member joint team comprising US, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan experts are working for the recovery of radioactive materials of a cargo container at the Chittagong port. A panel of nine experts of the US Department of Energy arrived in Bangladesh at the request of the Chittagong Customs House, after a container with the radioactive material was detected last April.
One steel company of Chittagong exported a consignment of five containers carrying scrapped stainless steel which were off-loaded at Sitakunda and shipped through Chittagong port for India via Colombo Port. On April 29, Colombo port authorities identified one of the containers with radiation and later the Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Authority found that one or more items of a container had been radioactive.
It may be mentioned here that the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) set up the Radioactivity Testing and Monitoring Laboratory at Chittagong in 1987, after the Chernobyl accident, to monitor all imported and exportable food and other materials including scrap metals for detection of radioactivity. It is supposed to take appropriate measures to isolate radioactive materials for protection of the public. The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (BAERA) was established in 2012 to protect the health of the public from harmful effects of ionizing radiation.
The report raises several serious questions on handling of radioactive materials at the Chittagong port. (i) How could the radioactive material enter the Chittagong Port without being detected? (ii) What action was taken for its recovery and protection of the public immediately after detection last April? (iii) Was the radioactivity first detected at the Chittagong Port or the Colombo Port? (iv) If it was detected at Chittagong, why was it allowed to be exported to India? (v) If it was detected at Colombo, why was it not detected first at Chittagong? (vi) Was any worker exposed to ionizing radiation at the Chittagong Port? (vii) What action was taken against the company which imported the radioactive material? (viii) Is the radioactivity of the material so high that the BAEC and BAERA are unable to handle, store or dispose of without assistance from any foreign country? (ix) Lastly, if this is the level of preparedness of the BAEC and BAERA, how can they handle and regulate large amounts of highly radioactive materials and protect the public from harmful radiation at the proposed nuclear power plant at Rooppur?
It is hoped that the concerned authorities would provide answers to the above mentioned questions and assure the public that they are and will be safe from any ionizing radiation.
The writer is a senior nuclear engineer.
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