Radioactive leak fears from sunk barge P305

Vol 24, PW 19 (12 Aug 21) People & Policy

Radioactive material underwater off the coast of Mumbai sounds like the recipe for a B-grade movie or a nightmare.

But ONGC sources fear a real threat to marine and human life following the revelation that a radioactive device sank with AFCONS-hired barge AWB Papaa-305 (P305) during Cyclone Tauktae on May 17 (2021). ONGC tells us it needed the Industrial Gamma Radiation Exposure Device (IGRED) on P305 to conduct a radiographic inspection of offshore platform welding operations at the Heera field during the LEWPP project.

Measuring 40-feet long, the device was packed in a locked wooden box inside a lead-lined metal container on the main deck of P305. On June 10 (2021), Navi Mumbai-based Kaizen NDT & Engineering Services, owner and operator of the IGRED, informed the Mumbai-based Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) that "it is practically not possible to locate/retrieve the device, and we seek your confirmation to leave the device as it is, as there is no compromise on safety or harm to the environment."

Contacted on August 10, AERB head of industrial applications and transport RK Singh would not comment on the risks to public health and safety of a radioactive device containing radioisotope Iridium-192 lying on the seabed in water depths of between 35-45 metres. "We deal only with Kaizen NDT," he stressed.

"We are not obliged to speak to you." In his three-page letter to AERB, Kaizen NDT owner Yogesh Jaju said the company had also made a police complaint about the loss of the IGRED.

"As per the information received from Afcons, ONGC/Indian Navy had deployed four vessels (two survey vessels: Fugro Mapper and Canara Pride and two diving vessels: Seamec-II and Navy ship Makar) to search and locate the sunken container using multibeam echosounder/side-scan sonar devices." Jaju said these vessels had retrieved debris from the sunken barge - but not the 40-feet long radioactive container despite a ten-day search from May 31 (2021), "covering the area working backwards from the location where barge P305 sank until the location where the vessel started sinking as reported."

Jaju claims in his letter to AERB that "despite best efforts", the device could not be found and that because of the onset of monsoon rains, which will last till the end of September, "it is not possible to continue the survey activities.” Jaju argues that "the said IGRED device had been designed, tested and manufactured to the stringent regulatory requirements and device being robust in construction, there is practically no possibility of breakage of the device or the source (Iridium-192) coming out of the device." Jaju stresses that there are only “minimal” chances of harm to marine/human life. But industry sources say nothing justifies leaving a radioactive device on the seabed so close to Mumbai. “No one can guarantee there will be no leak of radioactivity contaminating fish caught off Mumbai,” says an ONGC source. He accepted it is impossible to search for the device during the monsoon rains but said the search should resume to salvage sunken barge P305 and AFCONS-hired tugboat Varaprada, which also sank on May 17, as they pose a danger to vessels.

Radioactive leak fears from sunk barge P305

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