Kaiga probe focuses on Bangladeshi labourers

The special investigating team (SIT) of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) probing the ‘sabotage’ at the Kaiga n-power plant is focusing on the theft angle.
“The manner in which tritium [an isotope of hydrogen] found its way into drinking water at the plant suggests a definite attempt at smuggling,” sources privy to the investigation said.

“Those who handled the two vials [containing tritium] had more than mischief on their minds. They knew that the vials containing 30 ml of tritium each was valued at Rs60 lakh in the market,” they said.

The fact that the vials were dumped in a water cooler shows that it was a handiwork of somebody who knows that tritium is water soluble. “The thief/s might have dropped the vials into the cooler to avoid being caught,” the sources said.

Tritium is extracted only when the plant is closed for biennial maintenance and very few employees have access to the process. The SIT is focusing on those who were present at plant-I, which saw the breach, when it was shut for maintenance from October 20.

The SIT has zoomed in on the fact that the vials were found at a place where maintenance was being carried out.

Every millilitre of tritium costs Rs1 lakh in the market. The nucleic material used to maintain the trigger mechanism of nuclear weapons is available in the open market but only through secured channels. Many countries in the world need it to service nuclear weapons. In wrong hands, the material could have disastrous consequences.

Although NPCIL has denied it, the possibility of involvement of unskilled labourers hired by contractors to whom the plant outsources certain jobs cannot be ruled out. In this case, the labourers could be Bangladeshi intruders disguised as migrants from West Bengal.

The contractors are issued permits which have to be displayed at the time of entering the plant. Once that is done, labourers are let in after a general search by the CISF. Inside the plant, they work under the guidance of a supervisor. But since the plant was closed for maintenance, the supervision may not have been strict and provided scope for mischief.

Deputy police commissioner of Uttara Kannada Chennappa Gowda, however, said, “We have no record of Bangladeshis here.”