An open letter to the people of Meghalaya

THE SHILLONG TIMES
June, 12, 2007
An open letter to the people of Meghalaya
By Dr K.S.Parthasarathy*

Media reports say that your views are strongly polarized in favour of and against uranium mining in Domiasiat. This is a healthy development, as it will create the much-needed awareness among the public on all mining related issues. Before taking a stand, you must get all facts and analyze them dispassionately.
The Uranium Corporation of India, which claims to be a "company with a mission", should travel an extra mile not to "educate" you but to "inform" the public honestly, frankly and openly. They have been in business since 1967.
A few well-motivated NGOs get away with deliberate propaganda mixing myths and realities. A popular journalist once informed an unsuspecting audience that Uranium-238 is radioactive and has a half-life of 4500 million years, a true statement. He did not tell that because of the long half-life, the emission from Uranium is very feeble.
They exaggerate omissions and commissions cleverly to manipulate the minds of innocent populations.
Most of the propaganda is about the conditions in Jaduguda. Jharkhand Organisation against Radiation (JOAR), an NGO makes the startling and frivolous claim that many women in Chattikocha village in Jauduguda have change in their menstrual cycle!
The NGO alleged that many people in Jaduguda suffer from weakness, depression etc; 1/3rd of women are unable to conceive; children are born with one eye, disfigured face, twisted legs etc. Health effects of radiation have been the subject of detailed study for the past several decades. The United Nations Scientific Committee of the Effects of Atomic Radiation publishes periodic reports on it. None of these ever recorded that radiation can cause such symptoms
.Medical specialists studied alleged health effects in Jaduguda and concluded that the weird images of diseases and vague symptoms have nothing to do with radiation.
UCIL gives a commitment that they will carry out their mining activity safely, The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, the competent authority to enforce radiation safety will ensure that they do so.
However, there were violations; every TV channel, which went to Jaduguda, recorded them; Villagers occasionally stray into the tailing ponds. (Tailing ponds contain radioactive waste left after the removal of uranium.) The NGOs claim that there is no warning or signpost about the presence of radioactive waste. However, those villagers who stray into the pond ignore the signboards. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board also had made an issue of it. Now UCIL has fenced the ponds off and placed the site under the care of Central Industrial Security Force.
TV journalists who saw villagers on the tailings believed that they had got a scoop. Though walking over the tailings is a violation, the consequences of the violations are not significant. The radiation levels over the tailings are so low that a person has to stand over it for four hours a day for 365 days to get a radiation dose somewhere near the dose limit to members of the public. However, the practice is unacceptable.
Since we decided to increase nuclear power generation, we must explore and mine the indigenous resources of uranium aggressively by adopting safe practices and technology. We must not allow a few NGOs to scare away the public by exaggerating the perceived or imaginary risks of radiation. UCIL must enlighten the discerning sections of the public to exorcise the atomic ghosts created by overzealous nuclear critics.
[*The Author is former Secretary, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board]