Two committees probing BARC fire: chairman

CHENNAI - The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has set up two committees to look into the cause of the fire in one of its chemistry labs that killed two young scientists, BARC chairman S. Banerjee said here Monday.

We are trying to ascertain the cause of accident by estimating the chemicals and the quantities required that would cause such a fire. The police are conducting the forensic investigations, Banerjee told reporters.

I was at the centre attending a meeting when the accident happened. We didn’t think there were people inside the lab, he said.

Two research students were burnt alive in a fire that broke out in a building housing a chemical laboratory inside the BARC complex in Chembur in northeast Mumbai Dec 29.

Banerjee was in Chennai to participate in the 20th Annual Conference of the Indian Nuclear Society (INS) in which around 60 delegates spoke on the theme ‘Materials and Manufacturing in Nuclear Industry’.

Responding to a question on the civil nuclear agreement deal with the US, he said: We have to finalise the issue of reprocessing the spent fuel in the safeguarded nuclear power facility.