New Delhi:
The radioactive Cobalt-60 found in west Delhi's Mayapuri scrap market has been traced to Delhi University's Chemistry Department, where it was lying unused for the last 25 years.
The radiation leak led to 11 people being hospitalised. One of them has died.
(Read: One patient dies in Delhi due to radiation exposure)The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board has taken the matter very seriously and has said the university can be penalised for violating the rules and for carelessly discarding radioactive material.
The board says it is shocked that Delhi University acted in such a careless fashion and questioned why DU violated specific rules for handling Cobalt 60.
It has also slammed the university saying how a learned institution could be ignorant about the dangerous nature of the Cobalt 60. It now wants the university to explain the reason for not declaring the source of this Cobalt 60.
Meanwhile, speaking to NDTV, Delhi University Vice Chancellor, Dr Deepak Pental, said an in-depth investigation would be carried out on the matter.
"If the waste came from our university, then we should be responsible about what we are doing and how we are disposing our material. I have spoken to the head of the department. We will conduct in depth investigation from our side about how this negligence has occurred," he said.
The Cobalt-60 was in a "Gamma Irradiator", which was bought in 1968 from Canada and had not been in use since 1985, police said on Wednesday, adding that it was bought by scrap dealers in Mayapuri through an auction in February this year.
Gamma Irradiators are used for sterilisation or decontamination. Gamma Irradiation kills bacteria and the process exposes products or substances to gamma rays, the most common source of which is the radioactive Cobalt-60.
The Mayapuri scrap dealers dismantled the equipment and in the process, the lead covering on it was peeled off leading to radiation exposure. The workers who are undergoing treatment at city hospitals were shown photographs of the equipment and one of them identified it.