Untouchable
Nuclear waste is generated in uranium mines, nuclear power plants and research reactors. Once the uranium ore is extracted at the Jaduguda mines in Bihar, it is sent to a facility in Hyderabad for processing. Earlier, the waste was dumped in a pond nearby. But as it contaminated some wells nearby and residents protested, the waste is now returned to Jaduguda and dumped inside the mine campus.
The Nuclear Power Corporation, which manages all the power plants, dumps it waste in each plant, while it doesn't take responsibility for spent fuel from which weapon-grade uranium and plutonium are produced after reprocessing. Spent fuels are stored at the plant site until it can be moved for reprocessing. This waste is kept for years in chilled water to cool.
barc has a solid waste storage surveillance facility in operation at Tarapur, Maharashtra for the interim storage of solidified high-level radioactivity waste products produced in the waste immobilisation plant at the power station. A waste immobilisation plant is also under construction at Trombay and work has begun on another plant at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu.
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