An inquiry has been ordered into reports that an allegedly radioactive contaminated ship from the US has anchored off the Alang coast in Gujarat, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday.

“We have got complaints that a radioactive contaminated ship has anchored at Alang. We have already ordered an inquiry into the matter and hope to get the report within the next two days,” he told reporters in Delhi even as environmentalists in Gujarat demanded that the US government recalled the ship.

While the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) and the state government have denied the vessel posed a danger, environmental experts said a “huge disaster” was imminent if the ship, Platinum II, sinks or is allowed to be dismantled at the ship-breaking yard.

“The Indian Platform on Ship-breaking, a coalition of environmental, health, labour and human rights, is demanding that the US government must recall the ship in the same way as the French had recalled Le Clemenceau,” said Gopal Krishna of the group.

The ship allegedly has on board ‘asbestos-containing material’ (ACM) sheets amounting to 200 tonnes. Besides asbestos, up to 20 tonnes of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) is also on board the former luxury liner in the form of insulated wiring.

Kushal Singh Yadav, Toxics Department Co-ordinator at the Center for Science and Environment, said the asbestos and PCBs and oil onboard Platinum II would leak into the sea and damage sea-life. Yadav, citing his experience from visits to the yard on research for CSE in previous years, also said the yard is “unequipped” to handle the chemicals onboard the vessel.

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