Reactor's water cooler spiked with tritium

KAIGA, India, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- An Indian energy commission official said someone at a nuclear power plant deliberately put radioactive tritium in a water cooler.

About 40 or 50 employees who drank from the cooler on Nov. 24 outside the reactor area at the Kaiga plant in Uttara Kannada district in India had to be treated at a hospital for increased levels of radiation, the Press Trust of India and the Times of India reported Sunday.

"Somebody deliberately put the tritiated water vials into a drinking water cooler. Therefore, we are investigating who is behind the malevolent act," Atomic Energy Commission chief Anil Kakodkar said.

He said whoever is responsible will be punished under the Atomic Energy Act and other laws.

``The staff who had access to vials and the various points in the chain where the vials could have been diverted are being examined,'' an official said.

The government is investigating whether the act was meant to be sabotage or if a disgruntled employee had played a prank.

``The whole area has computer-accessed control. So in the course of time, we will be able to narrow down on the person who did the mischief,'' said S. K. Jain, chairman and managing director of Nuclear Power Corp. of India, which operates the plant.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen and is used in research, neutron generators and fusion reactors, the newspaper said.