A second check up of the Mayapuri scrap yard in the last six-day by the Greenpeace concludes that radiation level has come down at the six hotspots. “The hottest spot which had a reading of 500 micro-Sv/hr at 10 cm last week, has now dropped to 1 micro-Sv/h or 500 times less,” told Jan Vande Putte, Greenpeace radiation safety expert.

The Greenpeace team conducted the survey of decontamination in Mayapuri, West Delhi on Wednesday after the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) team removed dangerous level of radiation hotspots on 15 and 16 of May, 2010.

Earlier, the Greenpeace had conducted a survey of the scrap market on May 14 and identified six hotspots with two of them registering more than 5,000 times natural background radiation.

According to Putte, concerns remain in the area. “The remaining contamination does not pose immediate risk to workers, but could be still harmful if left untouched for a longer period of time,” adds Putte.

More risks will only be assessed when monsoon arrives in Delhi. The rain water can mix up with the remaining low level of contamination and can spread to other areas, Karuna Raina, nuclear campaigner of Greenpeace India told Governance Now. “More action still needs to be done by the government authorities in step by step manner before reducing the exposure of radiation in the area, concluded Raina.

The Greenpeace also brought to notice about the government’s inefficiency to deal with such situation. “There is inconsistency of information provided by the AERB,” Raina further added. According to Greenpeace, “Blood tests have been conducted around a month ago, and yet the results have not been provided to the people. Government has been unable to provide to give true picture of whole incident.”

But Raina also highlights the larger picture of disasters in India and raised the question of how government is simply inadequate to deal with such big problems. “Mayapuri is just a wake-up call. There are loop holes in the nuclear regulatory system. When India can not deal with small radiation exposure of Cobalt-60 how can it further expands its civilian nuclear programme,” told Raina.

The Greenpeace team also informed the local residents about the health hazards of radiation from Cobalt-60, said Raina.

The leakage of radiation from Cobalt-60 last month in Mayapuri had killed one person and injured others.