Ravi B.
Delhi University finally acted upon what it should have done long ago. After earning a bad name in the filed of maintenance radioactive materials due ‘Cobalt-60’ episode and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) reprimand in this regard the Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental has given instruction to recruit Radiological Safety officer for the university.
The RSO is a mandatory requirement as per AERB’s norms for all those institutions who deal with radioactive materials. But matter of the fact is that there has been no RSO in the university for a long time though the university has been dealing with radioactive materials in various departments and laboratories for several decades.

There are several departments like Physics, Chemistry, Genetics, Bio-technology, Geology and others. Even, there is a nuclear science related course which heavily depends on the radioactive materials to conduct its experiments and studies, says a senior teacher of the university. In fact, some of the teachers and students approached to the university authority to initiate the process to lift ban, imposed by AERB, to use radioactive materials in the university. The ban has been hampering the study and experiments very badly. Interesting fact is that, the process of recruitment of RSO got momentum when the issue of Cobalt-60 was raised in Delhi Assembly recently and demanded stern action against the VC.

“The process of recruitment of RSO has been already initiated. Last week the DU has invited applications from the suitable candidates. As the process completes the university can approach to AERB to get clearance in this regard and to get permission to use radioactive materials”, said a senior official of DU.