Fresh radiation source discovered in Mayapuri

NEW DELHI - Nearly a week after the first source of radiation was discovered in a scrap market in west Delhi’s Mayapuri area, another source containing Cobalt 60 was found and deactivated, police said Wednesday as a seventh victim battled radiation exposure.

The fresh source containing radioactive Cobalt 60 was found when the police scanned the area Tuesday.

“The source was discovered and deactivated by expert teams. The area is secure and there was no need to cordon off the area,” Additional Commissioner of Police Rajan Bhagat said.

The officer added that the new source was “mild and smaller in size”. Police checked the area again after the seventh victim exposed to the radiation was hospitalised a day earlier.

The victim has been at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) trauma centre since Monday afternoon.

“The seventh victim was identified as Babulal. He displayed some symptoms and was hospitalised but he seems stable and his blood counts are okay. We have five other victims recouping in our hospital of which one person Rajendra is in a very serious condition,” D.K. Sharma, medical superintendent of AIIMS told IANS.

He added that Rajendra’s blood count was very poor and he was being treated “conservatively”.

The condition of the six victims who suffered severe burns after being exposed to Cobalt 60 at the scrap market last week is being monitored; while some showed signs of improvement, two continue to be in a critical state, doctors said.

Scrap metal dealer Deepak Jain is battling for life at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital while the five others — Gaurav, Rajendra Prasad, Ramjee Yadav, Ram Kalap and Himanshu Jain — were admitted to AIIMS last week.

Deepak, whose body turned black after he touched the radioactive source, has a considerably suppressed bone marrow and his condition is critical while Rajendra’s condition is also serious.

A team of experts from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and a squad from the National Management Authority (NDMA) as well as radiation experts from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) scanned the Mayapuri area where the second source was discovered Tuesday evening.

The AERB first received information from the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital April 9 that Jain was showing symptoms of suspected exposure to radiation.

Since then, the Crisis Management Group in the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and other officers from DAE and AERB have camped in the national capital with a range of radiation monitoring and detecting equipment for prompt identification and recovery of the radioactive pieces and their safe disposal, police said.