Red alert: India’s nuclear disaster plans, outdated and inadequate
Greenpeace India released a report titled ‘Red Alert – India’s nuclear disaster plans, outdated and inadequate’. The report assesses India's nuclear disaster plans and concludes that India’s plans do not offer a complete defence-in-depth for existing nuclear plants. According to the report, some of the disaster intervention levels set by the Indian nuclear regulator allow inadequate protection against possible exposure, both internal (ie from consumption of irradiated foodstuffs or radioactive particle-laden air) and external (by simply being physically present in an area with high radiation levels) in case of a nuclear emergency. The report highlighted that population density around nuclear power plants in India pose a significant evacuation challenge in the event of an emergency. The current evacuation plans only provide support within a radius of 16 km in case of an offsite nuclear accident.