India does not have a nuclear and radiation safety policy even after 30 years of creation of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) in 1983 specifically to formulate such a policy.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that is ordinarily mandated to audit the accounts felt necessary to show this lapse in its report tabled in parliament on Wednesday. "The absence of such a policy at the macro-level can hamper micro-level planning of radiation safety in the country," it said.

The CAG also noted with concern that the AERB has neither a detailed inventory of all radiation sources to ensure effective compliance of regulations for safe disposal nor proper mechanisms to ensure that radioactive waste had actually been disposed off safely after use.

Warning that a Fukushima or Chernobyl-like disaster may hit India if the nuclear safety issues are neglected, the CAG expressed concern that AERB has no power to make rules, enforce compliance or impose heavy penalty in cases of nuclear safety oversight. It was shocked that the board can impose a fine of maximum Rs 500 as a deterrent.

The report says the Department of Atomic Energy accepted lack of policy on the nuclear safety and pledged to spur up the AERB to initiate the process of consolidating documents outlining various policy statements, codes, and guides as a separate policy document.

The audit found that the AERB had developed only 141 of the 168 safety documents that it is expected to develop. The audit also found delays in the preparation of some safety documents. The DAE said the resolution of contradictory views from experts on critical issues in some cases has taken substantial time.

The CAG report also points out that about 90 per cent of medical X-ray facilities in the country have not been registered with the AERB. More than 5200 of about 57,400 medical X-ray units thus remain out of the regulatory control of AERB.

The AERB wriggled out telling the CAG, saying it was overwhelmed by the rapid speed at which X-ray units have proliferated across the country as it posed challenges in registering and regulating them.

The board, which is India's nuclear safety watchdog, also admitted to the CAG that it has allowed X-ray and radiotherapy clinics to function without mandatory inspections and that it lacks mechanisms to track the disposal of hazardous radioactive material by these clinics.

The AERB is mandated to undertake regulatory reviews and safety inspections of nuclear power plants and medical and industrial sites where radioactive materials might be used for diagnostic or non-destructive industrial testing activities.

The audit report says the AERB has not conducted 85 per cent regulatory inspections for industrial radiography and radiotherapy units, although these were identified as having a high radiation hazard potential.

A 97 per cent shortfall in inspections of diagnostic radiology facilities each year suggests that the AERB “was not exercising regulatory oversight over units related to the health of the public,” the CAG observed.

The CAG has listed 15 instances over the past 12 years during which radioactive materials or related equipment lost or found missing from various sites or were not recovered or found.

The CAG has asked the AERB to strengthen regulatory inspections of nuclear and radiation facilities, speed up the process of setting up directorates of radiation safety in all states, and maintain an inventory of radiation sources and improve mechanisms to track radioactive material.