The stricter control is needed to prevent the abuse of radioactive waste such as those found in the vacant land area of Batan Indah Housing complex in South Tangerang, Banten, at the end of January 2020.
By
I GUSTI AGUNG ANGGA PUTRA / RINI KUSTIASIH / HARIS FIRDAUS / M ZAID WAHYUDI
·4 minutes read
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Control over the use of nuclear energy needs to be strengthened. The security and safety of the people should be the number one priority. In this regard, efforts to increase the number of required equipment and to update the technology in monitoring the radioactive substances should be continued to prevent radioactive pollution.
The appeal was conveyed by Commission VII of House of Representatives to the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Bapeten) and the National Nuclear Energy Agency (Batan) during a hearing with the two institutions in Jakarta on Thursday (20/2/202 0).
The stricter control is needed to prevent the abuse of radioactive waste such as those found in the vacant land area of Batan Indah Housing complex in South Tangerang, Banten, at the end of January 2020. The high radiation exposure was identified during a routine test conducted by Bapeten\'s mobile radioactivity monitoring equipment.
The deputy chairman of House Commission VII, Gus Irawan Pasaribu, questioned Bapeten\'s weak supervision. "As a supervisor, Bapeten has the duty of controling and preventing the misuse of waste and nuclear products," he said. In fact, the agency was still tricked.
House Commission VII said the findings of high radiation exposure had raised public doubts over the professionalism of Bapeten and Batan in managing the nuclear waste.
"Radioactivity has polluted the soil, trees and fruit," said another member of Commission VII, Adriana Dondokambey.
According to the head of Bapeten, Jazi Eko Istiyanto, radiation detection sensors are limited. "If there were detectors in many places, we could immediately detect (there was radioactive pollution)," he said. However, the procuring thousands of detectors would be very costly.
Bapeten and Batan also denied that the high radiation sources in the Batan Indah Housing came from their waste. At present, as many as 14,000 permits have been issued for the use of nuclear products in Indonesia. As many as 13,600 licenses are for hospitals and other 400 licenses for industries. "Obviously the waste is not from us," said Batan’s head Anhar Riza Antariksawan.
On Thursday, the cleaning of the location with high radiation exposure was temporarily stopped while awaiting the results of examination of soil samples by Batan. "The team evaluates the decontamination which has been carried out since 11 Feb.," said the head of the public communications and protocol department of Bapeten, Abdul Qohhar.
In Yogyakarta, a number of nuclear engineering experts from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) urged the government to thoroughly investigate the case. The discovery of cesium-137 (137 Cs) at a residentiallocation is an unusual phenomenon. Radioactive substances must always be stored in a safe place, including their waste.
"It’s the responsibility of the authorities to trace how sources (radioactive) can be found there," said the head of the UGM Nuclear Energy Technology Laboratory, Alexander Agung.
According to the lecturer at the Nuclear Engineering and Physics Engineering Department at UGM, Haryono Budi Santoso, the existence of cesium-137 in an unnatural location could be due to human error, theft, or sabotage. Such an allegation arose because based on available data, there were no reactor accidents or natural disasters, he said.
It’s the responsibility of the authorities to trace how sources can be found there.
Now, while the cleaning of the site with high radiation exposure site which has reached more than 90 percent, the results of a whole-body counting (WBC) of nine residents are also being awaited. Qohhar said that Batan\'s WBC results had been finalized and submitted to Bapeten. WBC results will be announced on Friday (21/2).
The safe limit for community radiation exposure is 1 milliSievert (mSv) per year. However, lecturer at the Nuclear Engineering and Physics Engineering Department at UGM, Anung Muharini, said there was an administrative boundary. It means that the people who are exposed to radiation beyond the limit are not automatically affected. Someone will experience health problems (changes in blood formation) if exposed to radiation exposure of 500 mSv.