Probe committee looking into sabotage angle in Kaiga incident

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited has launched a probe by an expert committee to probe how a drinking water cooler in the high-security Kaiga plant in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada district was contaminated with tritium that led to some 50 persons falling ill.
    
Kaiga Nuclear Plant station director JP Gupta told PTI over telephone from Kaiga that the incident has also been reported to the Intelligence department.
    
"We are investigating the mischief. A committee has been formed," he said. Nuclear scientists are among those on the committee. State government agencies have also been sounded.
    
Asked if he suspected "conspiracy" or "sabotage" behind the episode, Gupta said he did not wish to comment, saying "it's being investigated."
    
Sources said the incident has baffled the authorities in Kaiga, a high-security plant owned by NPCIL.
    
Kaiga currently has three 220 MW plants - two operational and one shut-down. A fourth one is slated to be operational from later this financial year, Gupta said.
    
Gupta said some 50 employees were subjected to treatment on November 25 to quickly reduce tritium dosage in their bodies, after they drank water from the cooler kept in 'operation island', a highly restricted zone. The water cooler was isolated. The employees became "normal" within hours of the treatment.
    
"Tritium is not poisonous," he clarified. "It's a form of water." The employees were treated to bring down the dosage in their bodies quickly. Even otherwise, it would have come down on its own in normal course, he explained.