India Based Neutrino Observatory: Reply ToThe INO Responses
By VT Padmanabhan
24 October, 2012
Countercurrents.org
The India based Neutrino Observatory [INO] a mega science project of the Department of Atomic Energy [DAE] is an underground laboratory coming up under the hills in Idukki-Theni districts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. There will be four caves, 16235 sq meter in area and 252,208 cub meter in volume, accessed by 2491 meter long tunnels. The observatory will receive beams of high energy muon neutrinos ‘manufactured' in neutrino factory in USA . A summary of the potential radiological, geological and ecological hazards from the laboratory was published in Countercurrents [CC] ON 26 Sep 2012. INO has responded to this article on the website hosted by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research [TIFR]. It is a document worth reading for all those who have an interest in the working of DAE. Link: http://www.ino.tifr.res.in/ino//Padmanabhan-Responses/Padmanabhan-Responses.pdf
My replies to INO responses are given in the following paragraphs.
1. Radiological hazards and accidents from factory beam neutrinos.
The CC article warned about the potential radiological hazards from the high-energy, collimated beams from the neutrino factory. I was particularly concerned about the radio-contamination of drinking water of over 5 million people in three districts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, stored in 12 dams, all within 50 km of the caves. This could have been a radio-ecological catastrophe, unheard of in modern history, perhaps rivaling Chernobyl and Fukushima . To this, INO response is: ‘the author harps on about factory neutrinos. This is wrong. In addition, his science is wrong: the properties of neutrinos .. are the same whether they are produced in the factory or come from space from far-away galaxies in the cosmos. The author has let his imagination run away with him; perhaps he has been influenced by the movie "2012" which took many liberties with facts about neutrinos!'
My fear was based on technical papers published by institutes like Fermilab and articles published in peer reviewed journals. Incidentally when this issue was broached by Shri VS Achuthanandan, the opposition leader of Kerala on 16 th of October, 2012, Dr NK Mondal said that they [authors of those papers] are a confused lot. Main references for neutrino health physics were given in the original CC article. The latest paper published on this topic by Joseph John Bevelacqua, i s available at www.intechopen.com . INO may study them and if they are unscientific, they should sort this issue with the authors and the publishers. The discussions since 17 th of September 2012 and the INO response to CC article reveal that the promoters and their supporters outside the establishment are unaware of the radiological hazards from the high energy collimated beams. Young students who are recruited to work with the detectors have not been told that they will be radiation workers of the future.
Many eminent non-DAE scientists, like R Ramachandran [The Hindu], Prof K Pappooty [Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishat -KSSP] and Prof T Jayaraman [the Tata Institute of Social Sciences -TISS] have ruled out any radiation contamination from INO activities. Many well-meaning, neutral science writers and other professionals have been misled by the propaganda materials at the INO website, which equates factory-made neutrinos with low-energy, non-collimated solar neutrinos, which are relatively less radioactive. Incidentally while INO leadership insists that neutrinos are harmless, media persons, professional, farmers and non-experts are discussing the potential radiation hazards from INO in a Kerala based discussion forum –Fourth Estate Critique [FEC]. If things go like this, DAE scientists will be fast losing their upper hand over science information. This will be good sign for science.
2. Potential damage to the dams from blasts
INO says that their ‘FAQ has a seismic map of India which shows that the project site is in Zone 2, which is seismologically the lowest possible zone in India. So the statement about Idukki (being the district in Kerala adjoining the project site) being in a "geologically sensitive district" is also false and misleading. It should be noted that Idukki dam is about 40 - 50 kms as the crow flies to the project site in Theni district. Mullaperiyar dam is also about 100 kms from the project site.”
Crows normally do not fly the shortest distance. The correct phrase to denote the shortest distance between two points is ‘as a neutrino flies'. The distance as a neutrino flies from INO cave to Idukki dam is 36 km and Mullaperiyar dam is 49 km. [See map] Planetary processes like earthquake do not obey the political borders created by humans. Even if it is agreed that all the caves will be located in Tamil Nadu, the blasting will have its impacts on the bordering district, Idukki, which is more seismically active. Kerala state is in seismic zone 3 and the central districts of Idukki and Kottayam are known to be more vulnerable due to plate tectonics, reservoir and rain-induced seismicity and other kinds of geological phenomenon like soil piping, rock-burst and landslide. Posting a map showing low seismicity of Tamil Nadu on the INO/TIFR website is not going to change this ground reality.
3. Location – in Tamil Nadu or in Kerala?
The contention that the main cavern and two smaller ones are located in Kerala was based on the data and sketches in the environmental impact assessment [EIA] of INO prepared by the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural Studies [SACON]. According to EIA the tunnel is 2491 meters long and the Kerala border is at 1700 meters from the portal. INO says that ‘the arithmetic is wrong. All tunnels are not in a straight line, as the figure shows. This is just a sketch. The entire cavern and lab complex will be in Tamil Nadu.'
According to a presentation by Naba K Mondal, the INO spokesperson at the Cochin University of Science and Technology [CUSAT] and an article by R Ramachandran published in the Hindu say that the tunnel is only 2 km long. This confusion needs to be sorted out. If the details given in EIA is just a sketch as stated in INO response, INO must be having a more authentic map by now as the digging will start in a few months. The best would be to give a proper map with geographical coordinates and the blue print of the tunnels and caverns, if they have one. Another question that arises here is about the budget. If budgeting is also based on the data in EIA, will the contractor be paid for 2491 meters or 2000 meters long tunnel?
4. How much rock will have to be blasted out?
I estimated the total rock to be extracted as 800,000 tons. INO response: ‘the total amount of rock debris , which is good quality granite , a useful construction material , is about 230,000 cubic metres or about 600,000 tons. In addition, the author seems to have disrespect not only of facts but numbers as well, as he has inflated the numbers.'
INO's estimate of 230,000 cub meters include 17% void. So the actual volume without void will be 190,900 cub meters (230,000x0.83]. The finished volume of the caves and tunnels, as per the dimensions given in EIA, works out to 235,974 cub meters. If the structure were carved out using a corer, the total volume of rock extracted will be a little over 236,000 cubic meters with some dust and no void. Since blasting is the method, more rock will have to be extracted. Assuming that this extra material will be 20%, the total volume to be extracted will be about 302,046 cub meters.
According to the Detailed Project Report of INO prepared for the Nilgiri site (Singara), which is in a humid tropic region (precipitation 3000 mm/yr), the roofs of the caves must have one-meter arc-concrete to reduce the water vapour. Three caves including the biggest one in the present site also will be located under the hills in the humid tropic, receiving an annual rainfall of more than 3000 mm. Hence, arc-concreting of the roof will have to be done for the Idukki-Theni caves also. The total area of the 3 caves being 16,135 sq meters, they will have to extract another 16,135 cubic meters of rock from the roofs of the caves. So the total volume of rock to be taken out [without void] is 318,181 cubic meters. Multiply this by 2.75 [tons per cub meter] which is the specific gravity of charnokyte rock. The total rock, a very good construction material to be extracted thus works out of 875,000 tons, as against the INO estimate of 524975 tons. I did not inflate the number; in fact I underestimated it by 75,000 tons. INO has underestimated the extraction by about 350,000 tons.
Here is a classic case of inflating the input [length of the tunnel] and deflating the output [high quality construction material]. My remit is radiological and ecological safety and I am not discussing the corruption angle. The extraction will be done by a contractor whose main interest will be the profit. Is there any check on the quantity of high quality rock that will be extracted from the underbelly of the Western Ghats ? There is a saying in Malayalam which originated in the mid 19 th century when large scale felling of trees in the Western Ghats began – ‘Trees of the forest and elephants of the Gods [temples]. Pull man, pull.'
5. Collaboration with USA
INO response on the issue of receiving neutrino beams from the factory in USA : “These are all speculative ideas. No such collimated high energy beam of neutrinos exists nor is one expected in the next 20 years. So the possibility of its being used as a tactical weapon does not arise.”
According to the Project Report Volume I [INO/2006/01], the observatory would have been ready by 2012 and the first phase of data taking on atmospheric neutrinos will be done during 2012-17. In the second phase which begins in 2018, neutrinos will be beamed from the Neutrino Factory. A brief description of the neutrino factory is given at page 195 of the project report. The Neutrino Factory – Muon Collider [NF-MC] is a US Department of Energy [DOE] project. The detector at INO is the Indian contribution to this venture and NK Mondal, the spokesperson of INO is a member of the steering committee and the convener of the far-detector of the neutrino factory. According to the latest timeline given at the NF-MC website, the factory will be ready by 2018. If everything goes as planned, INO is also expected to be ready for data-taking by 2018 and its main job will be to monitor the beamed neutrinos. Since INO is the only observatory that can be the far-detector for neutrino factories [above 7,000 km] that will come up in Europe and Japan, the Iudkki-Theni site will be busy entertaining these foreign guests and there will be no time for visitors from the cosmos. [The references for the collaboration with USA are given in the CC article].
For the argument sake, let us accept that NF will be ready after 20 years, ie in 2032 CE and the second phase activities of INO will also begin in that year. The projected life of INO is 120 years. Where will the DAE receive the neutrino beams from the factories as projected for the second phase of INO? Dig a new cave spending billions of rupees.
Science being a global enterprise today, there is nothing wrong in collaborations. USA is the acknowledged leader in modern science and technology and that country has signed more than 800 science collaboration agreements with other nations. There is reason for us to stay away from the global science enterprise. I am not for ghettoizing science in the name of narrow nationalism as it will only hurt our national interests. At the same time, details of all collaboration should be made available and nothing should be hidden. I do not understand as to why this collaboration with USA is kept as a guarded secret by INO and TIFR.
6. The weapon connection
The physics of the neutrino weapon has been elaborated in two papers authored by five high- energy physicists who have been working with the mainstream neutrino research facilities in USA and Japan . The idea was discussed in Physics Forums and reported widely in Science magazines like the New Scientist. Nobody questioned the physics possibility and as far as technology is concerned, they are working towards it very systematically on a war footing. INO has denied any weapon connection to the neutrino research. Research and manufacture of new weapons are not discussed in the legislatures or in the media anywhere in the world. These are among the few surprises, kept as closely guarded secrets by the military-industrial-scientific complex. The voters and tax payers get to know about them only when they are used. The case of depleted uranium [DU] weapons used by the US and British army in Iraq , Serbia and Afghanistan are among the recent examples. Modern weapons are more and more complex and millions of people are involved in inventing and fabricating them. A recent report by the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility [INES] says; “Worldwide, between 1.2 and 1.5 million people work as scientists and engineers in military research and development [over 90% of these are men]. Industry and public research budgets in this field add up to 100 -120 billion US dollars per year”. Majority of these bright young men would not know that the algorithms they write and the nuts and bolts they create will be finally used to assemble the Big Toys of the Big Boys. Neutrino research belongs to the realm of particle physics, phenomenology and cosmology. However, in USA and in India , neutrino research is controlled by the Government departments that make and maintain nuclear weapons.
Conclusion
There are attempts for democratization of science in all advanced countries. Scientists receiving government funds are told to interact with the people and inform them about their projects in languages understood by the people. Journal editors insist to avoid jargons and use simple language that can be understood by non-specialists also. In India , the science managers of the Department of Atomic Energy have insulated themselves from the Parliament and the people. This cannot go on endlessly. A recent example of this disregard for the public is the Kerala visit during the third week of October by Dr Mondal. He met Shri VS Achuthanandan, the Leader of the Opposition in Kerala seeking his support for this mega science project. VS informed him that he was not convinced. After this, there were three events – one with a handful of high school students in Thiruvananthapuram, and seminars at the physics departments of Maharaja's College, Ernakulam and the Cochin University for Science and Technology [CUSAT]. There were a few embedded journalists with him, but he did not hold any press conference in Kerala.
I love science and that is why I am doing this. In physics, Albert Einstein and Michio Kaku are my heroes. I am only exposing the lack of transparency and disregard for the safety of the people and the integrity of the eco-system shown by the promoters of INO. This project has been discussed by only a handful of high energy physicists in India and USA . Here comes the need for external peer reviews. There are thousands of women and men in India who can follow these issues and make proper scientific judgments. Rather than road-blocking the progress of science, such review will only help the advancement of science in general. The absence of peer review, parliamentary audit and public discussion are the main ills of the Department of Atomic Energy which receives a lion share of research money from the government of India . In discoveries and inventions, India is far behind of our neighbor China and also smaller economies/nations like South Korea . India produces the largest number of scientists and engineers and the brightest among them migrate to USA or Europe because of the unscientific attitude of the dominant science establishment and lack of proper science culture in India . If even half of our scientists abroad come back and work in frontier areas like genomics and nanotechnology, most of our national problems could be solved.
To end this episode of the dialogue, let us underline that peoples' health and integrity of dynamic structures like dams in a geologically sensitive area are too important issues to be left to a handful science managers, who are ignorant about the known qualities of the particles they will be handling and the eco-system dynamics of the place they are digging their caves.
VT Padmanabhan is a researcher in health effects of radiation. He has led epidemiological investigations among people exposed to high radiation in Kerala. He has also studied the occupational radiation hazards among workers of Indian Rare Earths, genetic effects of children exposed to MIC gases in Bhopal, health hazards to workers in a viscose rayon unit in Madhyapradesh and reduction of birth weight of babies near a beverage bottling plant in Kerala. He has visited several contaminated sites in Belarus and Japan and had extensive interactions with the survivors.His papers have been published in International Journal of Health Services, Journal of American Medical Association, International Perspectives in Public Health, the Lancet and Economic and Political Weekly. He is a member of the European Commission on Radiation Risk, an independent body of experts appointed by the Green MEPs in Europe. He can be reached at [email protected]
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