Preparation of Nuclear and Radiation Safety Policy

The mission of AERB is to ensure that the use of ionizing radiation and nuclear energy in India does not cause unacceptable impact on the health of workers and the members of the public and on the environment. The safety policies concerning the activities that are regulated by AERB are enshrined in the high level documents of AERB, namely the Radiation Protection Rules-2004, the AERB mission statement and the ‘Safety Codes & Guides’ of AERB. AERB has been developing Safety documents (codes & guides) over the years and their number currently stands at 144. No need was felt for a separate ‘Safety Policy’ document, as these are well defined in the existing documents. As mentioned before, AERB has already published 144 regulatory documents concerning different aspects of regulation as well as safety aspects covering siting, design, construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning of the different types of nuclear power plants of the facilities it regulates. AERB’s approach with respect to identifying and prioritising for preparation of specific regulatory documents is a dynamic and ongoing process and takes into account a number of factors such as urgency of the need for guidance, coverage of the intent of a particular document by one or more other documents, new developments etc. With developments and/or availability of new experience, there is a possibility that documents identified at one point of time might not be found necessary to be pursued later for publication. In a few cases, separate documents as identified at one point of time could be combined within the scope of a one or more documents identified later. Similarly new documents may also be identified based on the reviews for effective regulation of safety. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) did highlight the issue of development of safety policy document and the issue of some of the regulatory documents identified in the safety guide AERB/SG/G-6 (2001) being still under development. The following actions were taken: i. Detailed responses to explain the position of AERB and the status/ progress of development of the documents were submitted to CAG and Public Accounts Committee (PAC). ii AERB has agreed to the suggestion of Comptroller and Auditor General of India, to the extent of consolidating the existing policy objectives and higher level principles as brought out in various codes and other documents into a separate `Safety Policy` document. iii. Among the twenty seven documents referred in the question, AERB has already published three documents. After detailed review of the scope and the contents of seven documents, it was decided that they need not be brought out separately. Remaining seventeen documents have been incorporated in the document development plan of AERB in accordance with their assigned priorities.  Rare Earths in Kollam                         The mineral monazite, occurring in beach sand and inland placer deposits along the coastal tracts of India, is the major resource of rare earths in the country.  Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), a constituent unit of Department of Atomic Energy, has estimated 0.892 million tonnes of monazite resources in Kollam district, Kerala. The details are given below:  Area In situ Resources of Monazite (Million Tonnes) Chavara 0.819 Kannimelsery-Neendakara 0.023 Edava-Kollam 0.050 Total 0.892                         The beach sand minerals found in the Kollam district of Kerala contain, at different locations, monazite content ranging from   0.058 % to 0.734 %.  The mineral monazite, typically contains about 55 – 60% total Rare Earth Oxides and about 9 – 10% Thorium Oxide.                            Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), a Public Sector Undertaking under DAE, has set up a Monazite Processing Plant at Orissa Sands Complex (OSCOM), Odisha to process 10,000 tons per annum of monazite to produce mixed rare earth chloride.                Further, IREL has already commissioned its High Pure Rare Earths plant at Rare Earths Division, Aluva, in Kerala to process mixed rare earth chloride RCL and produce high pure separated rare earths.                   Besides, IREL has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) and International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI) for development of rare earths permanent magnet rings Production of Atomic Energy in Gujarat                                    The states where nuclear power is presently being generated in the country with their locations are given in the table below: State Location Units Capacity Maharashtra Tarapur Tarapur Atomic Power Station(TAPS) Units1 to 4 1400 Rajasthan Rawatbhata Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) Units 2 to 6 1080 Tamil Nadu Kalpakkam Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) Units 1&2 440 Kudankulam Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) Unit -1 1000* Uttar Pradesh Narora NaroraAtomic Power Station (NAPS) Units 1&2 440 Gujarat Kakrapar Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) Units 1&2 440 Karnataka Kaiga KaigaGeneratingStation (KGS) Units 1 to 4 880 *KKNPP-1(1000 MW) is currently generating infirm power.             There are two units of Pressurizsed Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) of 220 MW capacity each, in operation at Kakrapar in Gujarat. Two more PHWR units of 700 MW capacity each are under construction at the same site. In addition, the XII Five Year Plan proposals envisage start of work on 2 Units of Light Water Reactors of 1100 MW each at ChhayaMithiVirdi in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat, to be set up in technical cooperation with the USA.