New Delhi, Aug. 22: India’s nuclear safety watchdog has allowed X-ray and radiotherapy clinics to function without mandatory inspections and lacks mechanisms to track the disposal of hazardous radioactive material, the country's apex auditing agency has said.

The Comptroller and Auditor General [CAG] of India, in a report tabled in parliament today, also said that the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, had failed to prepare a nuclear and radiation safety policy it had been asked to develop nearly 30 years ago.

The AERB, established in 1983, is responsible for regulatory reviews and safety inspections of nuclear power plants and medical and industrial sites where radioactive materials might be used for diagnostic or non-destructive industrial testing activities.

The CAG has observed that the AERB has not prepared a nuclear and radiation safety policy in spite of a mandate in its Constitution Order of 1983. 'The absence of such a policy at the macro-level can hamper micro-level planning of radiation safety in the country,' the CAG said.

The Department of Atomic Energy accepted the audit observations in February this year, and pledged that the AERB would initiate the process of consolidating documents outlining various policy statements, codes, and guides as a separate policy document.

The audit found that the AERB had developed only 141 of the 168 safety documents that it is expected to develop. The audit also found delays in the preparation of some safety documents. The DAE has responded saying that in some instances, the resolution of contradictory views from experts on critical issues has taken substantial time.

The CAG report also points out that about 90 per cent of medical X-ray facilities in the country have not been registered with the AERB. More than 5200 of about 57,400 medical X-ray units thus remain out of the regulatory control of AERB. The AERB has responsed to the CAG, saying the rapid speed at which X-ray units have proliferated across the country have posed challenges in registering and regulating them.

The audit report says the AERB has not conducted 85 per cent regulatory inspections for industrial radiography and radiotherapy units, although these were identified as having a high radiation hazard potential.

A 97 per cent shortfall in inspections of diagnostic radiology facilities each year suggests that the AERB “was not exercising regulatory oversight over units related to the health of the public,” the CAG has observed.

It said the AERB has neither a detailed inventory of all radiation sources to ensure effective compliance of regulations for safe disposal nor proper mechanisms to ensure that radioactive waste had actually been disposed off safely after use.

The CAG has listed 15 instances over the past 12 years during which radioactive materials or related equipment lost or missing from various sites or were not recovered or found.

The CAG has asked the AERB to strengthen regulatory inspections of nuclear and radiation facilities, speed up the process of setting up directorates of radiation safety in all states, and maintain an inventory of radiation sources and improve mechanisms to track radioactive material. The audit report says the DAE has acknowledged the audit's concerns and agreed to look into its recommendations .