Protocol for sampling and analysis of food and agricultural produces consequent to a nuclear accident in India

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2021.106621Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A GIS and web-based protocol is suggested for agricultural monitoring driven by a predominantly agrarian economy.

  • This protocol is intended for use by decision makers in India in case of nuclear emergency.

  • The protocol postulates a centralized real-time control and updates for sampling of food & agricultural produce.

Abstract

Nuclear accidents, despite having an extremely low probability of occurrence, could cause uncontrolled release of radioactive elements (fission and activation products) into the environment, and may ultimately lead to contamination of food products. Such a scenario requires extraordinary measures for control of food, which might be contaminated to a level not suitable for human consumption. Agricultural products (which include grain crops, vegetable, fruits, dairy, meat, eggs and poultry) pass through a series of local, district and state level markets to finally reach consumers. An effective intervention at different stages of distribution by targeted sampling and analysis of suspected (contaminated) foodstuffs will substantially reduce the chances of contaminated food to reach the public. At the same time, it will also ensure food security of the people without imposing unreasonable restrictions in market flow. This can also help in getting the farmers adequately compensated. This paper presents a protocol for sampling and analysis suitable for India, considering the diversity with respect to climate, soil type, land use, crop pattern, population density, etc. The paper also provides an estimate of infrastructure requirement to carry out environmental monitoring following the emergency with respect to human resources and instruments. The paper proposes to use the national web portal for collection of data pertaining to crop pattern, land use and market flow. A web-based decision support system (Web-DSS) on a GIS platform, for sampling, analysis and display of data online would enhance the transparency of decision being taken and enable the administrators to effectively monitor the work flow, details of sample collection, analysis and effective use of human and other resources.

Introduction

Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) have to comply with stringent regulations for airborne emission and discharge of radioactive elements to the environment. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sets international safety standards that should be adhered with respect to site selection, baseline studies, safe operation and decommissioning of a nuclear power plant. In India, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) is the statutory body for ensuring that the use of nuclear energy does not cause undue risk to the health of workers, general public and the environment. AERB sets national norms and ensures that all NPPs in India comply with the regulatory requirements (AERB, 2014a; 2007; Kumar et al., 2017). The occupational exposures of employees are maintained well below the values specified by the regulator. The environmental release of radioactive effluents from NPPs are maintained significantly low following the doctrine of ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable). The estimated doses to the public by the operation of NPPs in India is published every year in the annual reports of AERB, which are on an average less than 1% of the limits specified by AERB (AERB, 2018). Indian nuclear power plant authorities contributed in enhancing safety & reliability of nuclear power plants globally through its active participation in World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), CANDU Owners Group (COG), IAEA and other international organizations.

India mainly has pressurized heavy-water reactors (PHWR, CANDU Type) which are run by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), a Public Sector Unit (PSU) under the administrative control of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) which in turn reports to Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The company (i.e. NPCIL) was registered as a Public Limited Company under the Companies Act, 1956 with the objectives of operating nuclear power plants and realising nuclear power projects for generation of electricity (NPCIL, 2020a).

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) under Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India (DAE, GOI) has established Environmental Survey Laboratories (ESLs) at all the nuclear-power plant sites to monitor the radioactivity levels in the environment (air, soil and water). The ESLs are under direct administrative control of Environmental Monitoring & Assessment Division, BARC. ESLs carry out extensive environmental survey, collecting and analysing thousands of samples every year in the 30 km radial distance of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Estimated external and internal doses thus obtained are reported to AERB every quarter. This is to demonstrate the regulatory compliance with respect to public dose during routine operations of the NPPs.

There are well laid procedures for the emergency preparedness in case of an accidental scenario with off-site consequences. AERB has laid down detailed protocols which are to be followed during off-site emergency scenarios and these procedures serve as guidelines for decision making pertaining to counter measures such as sheltering, evacuation and food control (AERB, 2014b; IAEA, 2015).

India has an agriculture dependent economic system and is one of the major suppliers of agricultural produce in the world market. Agriculture is one of the professions carried out by many members of population around our power plants. These agricultural products are partly used by the farmers themselves while a major part is exported to nearest towns and even to other countries. In the case of a nuclear accident/emergency, a large area around the power plant may get contaminated for a long period due to the release of radionuclides (Alexakhin et al., 1996; Saito et al., 2019). Controlling the consumption of food stuff, consequent to such an accident, is one of the counter measures that should be adopted (AERB, 2014b; IAEA, 2015).

However, in an agriculture driven market system, a full control by banning all the food stuff in a region could lead to food insecurity to the people dependent on it and account for unnecessary food wastage. Hence basic strategies for food control should followed to ensure the radiological safety of the public without imposing undue restrictions on the movement of agricultural produce. This strategy is in line with the on-going IAEA-CRP (Coordinated Research Project) on response to nuclear emergency affecting food and agriculture. Under this CRP, India has entered in a research agreement titled ‘Development of a generic methodology for the estimation of contamination of food materials consequent to a nuclear accident (IAEA CRPD 1.50.15)’. The CRP has been approved by DAE, India.

In case of severe natural calamities (Fukushima, 2011) or due to unforeseen circumstances (Chernobyl 1986) nuclear accidents may happen, leading to unrestrained release of radionuclides in the environment. In cases of such Beyond Design Basis Accidents (BDBA) such as Chernobyl and Fukushima; humans, animals, other biota and environment in the vicinity are potentially exposed to higher levels of radioactivity (Beresford et al., 2016; Haque et al., 2017; Mikami et al., 2015; Saito et al., 2015). Such unanticipated scenarios require adequate planning and rigorous decision support methods to mitigate the detrimental effects on human health and the environment (Alexakhin et al., 2007; Cipollaro and Lomonaco, 2016) and prompt decisions should be taken to keep the doses received by the public due to ingestion of food material within reasonable limits prescribed by ICRP (ICRP, 2012). Geographical Information System (GIS) is an effective scientific gateway which is greatly helping cases of unprecedented natural calamities by providing databases of the concerned areas and easily understandable visualization for prompt decision making (Goodchild, 2010; Konstantopoulos and Ikonomopoulos, 2015; Steiniger and Hunter, 2013).

India is a country with vast expanse (3.82 million square kilometres) with enormous geographic and climatic variations. The production and market flow of agricultural products vary widely from one site to other. This is necessary to consider in order to build a harmonized procedure for sampling and analysis of agricultural produces, in case of a nuclear accident which may affect agriculture and food products. India is mainly an agrarian country with almost 43% of its population is dependent upon food produced locally in their fields and milk produced by the livestock/cattle grazing locally (Lele and Goswami, 2020). India is in the tropical zone, and the nuclear power plants in the country are located at various geographic locations. The agricultural pattern in India, the food products cultivated, and the distribution pattern are quite different as compared to other developed countries. The country produces leafy vegetables, milk and meat with a shelf life of a few days to cereals and pulses which have shelf lives of more than a few months. Similarly, the distribution pattern of food products ranges from self-use by the farmers and export to other countries. Hence there is a necessity to develop suitable protocols for the sampling and analysis of food product unique for the country considering the local aspects. This will support the authorities in taking appropriate decisions with respect to food control in an accidental scenario, so that adverse impacts to the agricultural and food sector is minimum and consumers are adequately protected.

This paper presents the various characteristics of suitable food sampling and analysis protocol which takes care of complexity and diversity in Indian agricultural practices, crop patterns and food habits. The protocol is exclusively applicable in case of a nuclear or radiological emergency affecting food and agriculture in India. The protocol also presents an estimate of the infrastructure requirements required for sampling and analysis for radioactivity in food in an extended region of 100 km.

Section snippets

Location of nuclear power plants in India

India is located in the southern region of Asia with its southern part bordered by the Indian Ocean, northern region by the Himalayas, western by the Arabian Sea and eastern by the Bay of Bengal. Geographically, the country is situated north of the equator, and has a geographic extent with 8°44′ to 37°6′ north latitude and 68°7′ to 97°25′ east longitude. It is the second largest country by population and seventh largest by area. The total population stands at 1.21 billion (Census 2011)while the

Optimizing the sampling collection

Subsequent to a nuclear accident, the process of sample collection and its analysis should be initiated as per the recommendations of IAEA and AERB (AERB, 2014b; IAEA, 2015, 1997). A generic guideline for sampling and analysis in an accidental scenario has already been prescribed in the AERB guidelines. The main aim of such sampling and analysis protocol is to establish a food control mechanism which will ascertain that no food item which is contaminated above a given threshold level (OIL7,

Sampling and analysis objectives

The major spread of radioactivity arises due to the contamination of vegetation due to foliar deposition. The potential areas of contamination are identified based on the source term and meteorological data. It is expected that, after the radiological event, a daily report on contamination data will be provided by the authorities based on atmospheric dispersion models. This protocol does not cover the atmospheric dispersion methodology, since it is beyond the scope of this proposal. The

Human resources and infrastructure requirement for sampling and analysis

The 21st century has revolutionized the transport system throughout the world and India is also not far behind. Fresh food items travel via trucks, train, air-cargo and through waterways much faster than they used to travel 50 years ago. Metro cities in India like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai & Kolkata, get their milk and vegetables supply from areas as far as 300 km after an overnight journey. Thus, it may be required that we must collect samples from areas up to 100 km radial distance on a

Conceptual steps involved in decision making during emergency situation

A brief conceptual outline of the steps followed for decision making (Fig. 5), in case of a radiological or nuclear emergency, can be given as follows:

  • a)

    Announcement of Radiological or Nuclear Emergency

  • b)

    A centralized monitoring station with a set of decision makers (DMs) is set up

  • c)

    A GIS decision support system (Web-DSS) with real-time updates is set up with all the databases which were collected beforehand. It will also populate a spatial database, which will handle data collected during the

Survey of agro-product markets and e-NAM

In India, there are several Agro-Product Market Centres (APMCs), now being connected through a central government regulated portal National Agriculture Market (eNAM), which work as large collection centres for different types of agriculture produce like crops, vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs, poultry etc. from nearby districts. There are more than 2477 principal regulated markets and 4843 sub-market yards regulated by the respective APMCs in India. A large proportion of the agricultural produce

Conclusion

Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011 have invoked responses from various regulatory bodies around the world, especially from FAO & IAEA for more thorough and comprehensive methods of emergency preparedness regarding agriculture and food produce. The new approach must include real-time updates using GIS (an amalgamation of geospatial technology with information technologies), artificial intelligence, big data analytics and machine learning processes to expedite and assist in the overall

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

The Joint FAO/IAEA Programme on Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture supported the preparation of this manuscript under CRP D1.50.15 on Response to Nuclear Emergency affecting Food and Agriculture. Any views expressed are not necessarily those of the IAEA. We would also like to thank Dr. K. S. Pradeepkumar (Ex-Group Director, HS & E Group, BARC) for his guidance and keen interest in the subject. Thanks, are also due to Dr. R. M. Tripathi (Head, HPD, BARC) and Dr. A Vinod Kumar (Head,

References (49)

  • S. Mikami et al.

    Spatial distributions of radionuclides deposited onto ground soil around the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and their temporal change until December 2012

    J. Environ. Radioact.

    (2015)
  • Y. Onda et al.

    Soil sampling and analytical strategies for mapping fallout in nuclear emergencies based on the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

    J. Environ. Radioact.

    (2015)
  • K. Saito et al.

    Summary of temporal changes in air dose rates and radionuclide deposition densities in the 80 km zone over five years after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident

    J. Environ. Radioact.

    (2019)
  • K. Saito et al.

    Detailed deposition density maps constructed by large-scale soil sampling for gamma-ray emitting radioactive nuclides from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

    J. Environ. Radioact.

    (2015)
  • S. Steiniger et al.

    The 2012 free and open-source GIS software map – a guide to facilitate research, development, and adoption

    Comput. Environ. Urban Syst.

    (2013)
  • T. Yamada et al.

    Screening test for radioactivity of self-consumption products in Fukushima after the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP accident in Japan

    Appl. Radiat. Isot.

    (2017)
  • Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, Annual Report 2018. Atomic Energy Regulatory Board

    (2018)
  • Site Evaluation of Nuclear Facilities, AERB Safety Code- [CODE NO.AERB/NF/SC/S (Rev.1)]

    (2014)
  • Criteria for Planning, Preparedness and Response for Nuclear or Radiological Emergency

    (2014)
  • Regulatory Inspection and Enforcement in Nuclear Power Plants and Research Reactors (AERB/NPP/SM/G-1)

    (2007)
  • R.M. Alexakhin et al.

    Serious radiation accidents and the radiological impact on agriculture

    Radiat. Protect. Dosim.

    (1996)
  • R.M. Alexakhin et al.

    Chernobyl radionuclide distribution, migration, and environmental and agricultural impacts

    Health Phys.

    (2007)
  • Annual Report of Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority

    (2018)
  • Census 2011

    Census of India -2011

  • Cited by (2)

    • Insights on the distribution and environmental implications of the radio-isotope <sup>235</sup>U in surface soils and glaciers of the Tibetan Plateau

      2023, Environmental Pollution
      Citation Excerpt :

      Under the lifting and transport of prevailing winds and updrafts, pollutant aerosols are imported over the TP. Therefore, we conclude that the high 235U/238U ratio in the south TP may be the result of the Indian atmospheric nuclear tests (mainly conducted in the 1990s) or nuclear power industries (Mishra et al., 2021), which produced a high concentration of 235U and formed a stable high-value layer in the atmosphere. Under the transport and carrying of the South Asian monsoon, enriched-U materials has been transported over the Himalayas and then settled to the south TP surface (e.g., soils and glaciers).

    View full text