The November 2009 exposure of employees at the Kaiga nuclear power plant to tritiated water is not the first instance of high radiation exposures to workers. Over the years, many nuclear reactors and other facilities associated with the nuclear fuel cycle operated by the Department of Atomic Energy have had accidents of varying severity.
The ever-increasing security threat to Indian nuclear establishments could lead to almost all of them being declared no-fly zones to avoid the possibility of any plane crashing into them in a repeat of the 9/11 attack. National security adviser M K Narayanan is learnt to have written to the Prime Minister's Office to consider a no-fly zone status for these sensitive establishments, a copy of which was sent to the aviation ministry for technical evaluation recently.
