Radiation leak: Cobalt 60 came from DU's chemistry department

The Delhi Police today said it had traced the origin of the radioactive Cobalt 60, which has led to the death of one person, to scrap sold by the Department of Chemistry in the University of Delhi in February this year.

At least seven other persons who were affected by the exposure to the radiation are undergoing treatment in various Delhi hospitals.

The radioactive material was found in a metal scrap shop in the Mayapuri Industrial Area in West Delhi and those affected by the exposure to it were the owner of the shop and his assistants.

According to the police, the Cobalt-60 was in a Gamma Irradiator, which the University's Department of Chemistry had bought in 1968 from Canada. It was lying in disuse since 1985.

The irradiator was sold off with other unused material in an auction on February 26 this year, when it was bought by a scrap dealer in Mayapuri, Harcharan Singh Bhola. He, in turn, removed the iron part from the cell and sold the lead part to another scrap dealder, Giriraj Gupta.

Gupta dismantled it further sold the lead to some other scrap dealers and kept the iron part, embedded in the lead, with himself. In this process, a part of the iron scrap removed by Bhola reached Deepak Jain through Rajender, who was affected the most by the radiation and died a couple of days ago.

The entire incident came to light when on April 8, the authorities were informed about some people suffering burns and other symptoms associated with exposure to a radioactive source.

Experts from the Department of Atomic Energy and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) who rushed to the area were ultimately able to recover and secure eight sources of different intensity from the shop as well as a godown owned by Jain. Two more sources were later recovered from the shop of Gupta.

NNN