But government is silent on the extent of contamination suffered by six workers
India's Atomic Energy Department has revealed that six workers at its Kalpakkam nuclear power plant, 70km from the southern city of Chennai, recently suffered the 'worst radiation exposure in India's nuclear history' - a rare admission from the government.
Naresh Bansal, associate director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, which supervises the country's nuclear power plants, said that the exposure was higher than the permissible annual exposure but lower than the permissible lifetime exposure.
Rated as India's worst radiation accident, the contamination occurred on January 21 due to a valve failure, the centre said.
But authorities have persistently refused to make public details of the contamination suffered by the victims - five men and a woman.
The staff union at the plant, citing internal memos, claims the six workers were subjected to exposure dangerously higher than the permissible limits laid down by the country's atomic energy regulatory board.
The centre's director, B.Bhattacharjee, claims that the six workers haven't reported any health problems so far and have been assigned duties outside the radiation zone.