New Delhi: On Tuesday i.e. on May 4, 2010, University Grants Commission (UGC) has formed a five-member committee to formulate guidelines for procurement, usage, storage and disposal of radioactive and hazardous material. UGC has taken the initiative to form the committee in the wake of the radiation leak in the city that killed one person.
The committee will be headed by G.K. Rath, chief of the cancer centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Other members will include A.K. Kohli, S.P. Kale and H.S. Kushwaha of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and D.D. Deshpande of Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.
According to a UGC official, the committee will submit the guidelines within a month's time. They will be circulated to all universities and colleges about the usage of radioactive material. Furthermore, the official also added that the team will study the existing guidelines of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and other agencies and will thereafter frame new guidelines.
As per sources, the radiation leak was reported about a fortnight ago from a scrap market in Mayapuri area of west Delhi. Police said that the source of the leak was a radioactive gamma cell containing Cobalt-60 that was auctioned as scrap by Delhi University's chemistry department, two months ago.
