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The ongoing session of Parliament is expected to take up a Bill for establishing the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of India, said Dr S.K. Banerjee, Secretary, Department Atomic Energy.
On Saturday, interacting with the media on the sidelines of function at the Nehru Science Centre, he said the regulatory authority will have statutory powers and will replace Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).
Under the Atomic Energy Act of 1962, AERB has the oversight powers over all the nuclear facilities in the country. AERB reports to the Atomic Energy Commission, but over the years, many nuclear experts, including Dr A. Gopalakrishnan, former Chairman of AERB, have questioned the independence of AERB.
Dr Banerjee said that while drafting the Bill, the Union Government had referred to the similar bodies in other countries and best practices have been drawn from them. “Now it is for Parliament to take a call on the Bill,” he said.
The decision to establish a nuclear authority was announced by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in April after reviewing the impact of Japan's Fukushima atomic accident on India's nuclear programme.
A senior official of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India said, during the Fukushima accident there was blow-out in one of the reactors because of hydrogen built up. To prevent such accidents, especially at Tarapur-1 and 2, a new system which will pump in Nitrogen (inert gas) around the reactor has been devised and which would be activated soon, he said.
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