health and safety in power sector
HEALTH AND SAFETY CONCERNS IN POWER SECTOR
The power sector is prone to many accidents and mishaps due to the nature of the working conditions of the power generation plant. The following are the major health and safety concerns in the power sector:
Exposure of workers and public to radioactive material Uncontrolled release of radioactive material leading to contamination and exposure off site.
Conventional construction hazards and working near live equipment.
Health problems such as respiratory disorders, skin disorders from emitted hazardous substances like lead, asbestos, coal dust, fly ash, silica and toxic gases
However negligence towards these safety concerns leads to occurrence of accidents and some of these accidents can be on a large scale causing great loss to life and endangering the safety of employees as well as the general public.
The following stated are the major accidents that have occurred in the recent past in the power sector:
Accidents in Nuclear Power Generation Plants:
April 2011 Fire in the control room of the Kaiga Generating Station in Karnataka
November 2009 Fifty-five employees consume radioactive material after tritiated water finds its way into the drinking water cooler in Kaiga Generating Station.
January 2003 Failure of a valve in the Kalpakkam Atomic Reprocessing Plant in Tamil Nadu results in the release of high-level waste, exposing six workers to high doses of radiation. The leaking area of the plant had no radiation monitors or mechanisms to detect valve failure, which may have prevented the employees’ exposure.
Accidents in Thermal Power Generation Plants:
October 2013 Four labourers died when a pulley's wire broke up at the 1980 MW power plant being set up by Vedanta Inc's subsidiary Sterlite energy at Mansa Rajasthan
July 2013 three labourers and two Chinese supervisors were killed on the spot when heavy iron plates fell on them due to some technical snag in the machine at the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power
The power sector is prone to many accidents and mishaps due to the nature of the working conditions of the power generation plant. The following are the major health and safety concerns in the power sector:
Exposure of workers and public to radioactive material Uncontrolled release of radioactive material leading to contamination and exposure off site.
Conventional construction hazards and working near live equipment.
Health problems such as respiratory disorders, skin disorders from emitted hazardous substances like lead, asbestos, coal dust, fly ash, silica and toxic gases
However negligence towards these safety concerns leads to occurrence of accidents and some of these accidents can be on a large scale causing great loss to life and endangering the safety of employees as well as the general public.
The following stated are the major accidents that have occurred in the recent past in the power sector:
Accidents in Nuclear Power Generation Plants:
April 2011 Fire in the control room of the Kaiga Generating Station in Karnataka
November 2009 Fifty-five employees consume radioactive material after tritiated water finds its way into the drinking water cooler in Kaiga Generating Station.
January 2003 Failure of a valve in the Kalpakkam Atomic Reprocessing Plant in Tamil Nadu results in the release of high-level waste, exposing six workers to high doses of radiation. The leaking area of the plant had no radiation monitors or mechanisms to detect valve failure, which may have prevented the employees’ exposure.
Accidents in Thermal Power Generation Plants:
October 2013 Four labourers died when a pulley's wire broke up at the 1980 MW power plant being set up by Vedanta Inc's subsidiary Sterlite energy at Mansa Rajasthan
July 2013 three labourers and two Chinese supervisors were killed on the spot when heavy iron plates fell on them due to some technical snag in the machine at the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power