Department of Atomic Energy (India)

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is a department within the Ministry of Science and Technology in India. The department is responsible for nuclear technology, including nuclear power and research.

Nuclear Fuel Complex
The Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC), Hyderabad, India was established in 1971 as a major industrial unit of Department of Atomic Energy (India), for the supply of nuclear fuel bundles and reactor core components. It is a unique facility where natural and enriched uranium fuel, zirconium alloy cladding and reactor core components are manufactured under one roof. NFC symbolizes the strong emphasis on self-reliance in the Indian Nuclear Power Programme.

Natural Uranium is mined in the uranium mines around Jadugora in the Singhbhum area of Jharkhand state is converted into nuclear fuel assemblies. A 220 MW PHWR fuel bundle contains 15.2kg of natural uranium dioxide. Uranium dioxide pellets, which generate heat while undergoing fission, also generate fission products. The fission products, which are radioactive should be contained and not allowed to mix with coolant water. Hence the UO2, pellets are contained in Zirconium alloy tubes with both the ends hermetically sealed.

Located near the famous shrine of Moulali at Hyderabad, NFC is spread over an area of 150 acres. Production in its various plants started in the early seventies. Presently NFC has around 3700 personnel.

IGCAR
The Reactor Research Centre set up at Kalpakkam, India, 80 km south of Chennai in 1971 under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was renamed Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in 1985. The center is primarily a research facility besides being a nuclear power plant aiding in meeting a percentage of the electricity demands of the country.

There are two reactors at IGCAR. FBTR is a liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactor. There is another reactor called KAMINI (Kalpakkam Mini) which is a light water reactor with U233 as fuel meant for neutron radiography and activation analysis experiments. These reactors are operated and maintained by Reactor Operation and Maintenance Group(ROMG).

It has mastered the technology of reprocessing highly irradiated mixed carbide fuel for the first time in the world.

The Director of IGCAR is Dr. Baldev Raj.

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's primary nuclear research facility. It has a number of nuclear reactors, all of which are used for India's nuclear power and research programme
[edit] History

India's first reactor (Apsara) and a plutonium reprocessing facility, as photographed by a US satellite on February 19, 1966.BARC was started in 1954, as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET), and became India's primary nuclear research centre, taking over charge of most nuclear scientists that were at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. After Homi J. Bhabha's death in 1966, the centre was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.

The first reactors at BARC and its affiliated power generation centres were imported from the west. India's first power reactors, installed at the Tarapur Atomic Power Plant (TAPP) were from the United States.

The primary importance of BARC is as a research centre. The BARC and the Indian government has consistently maintained that the reactors are used for this purpose only: Apsara (1956; named by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru when he likened the blue Cerenkov radiation to the beauty of the Apsaras (Indra's court dancers), CIRUS (1960; the "Canada-India Reactor" with assistance from Canada), the now-defunct ZERLINA (1961; Zero Energy Reactor for Lattice Investigations and Neutron Assay), Purnima I (1972), Purnima II (1984), Dhruva(1985), Purnima III (1990), and Kamini.

The plutonium used in India's 1974 nuclear test carried out in Pokhran in the Thar desert of Rajasthan (Peaceful Nuclear Explosion) came from CIRUS, the primary charter of which was peaceful nuclear research. The 1974 test (and the 1998 tests that followed) gave Indian scientists the technological know-how and confidence not only to develop nuclear fuel for future reactors to be used in power generation and research, but also the capacity to refine the same fuel into weapons-grade fuel to be used in the development of nuclear weapons.


[edit] India and the NPT
India is not a part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), citing concerns that it unfairly favours the established nuclear powers, and provides no provision for complete nuclear disarmament. Indian officials argued that India's refusal to sign the treaty stemmed from its fundamentally discriminatory character; the treaty places restrictions on the nonnuclear weapons states but does little to curb the modernization and expansion of the nuclear arsenals of the nuclear weapons states.

More recently, India and the United States signed an agreement to enhance nuclear cooperation between the two countries, and for India to participate in an international consortium on fusion research, ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) so there are signs that the west wants to bring India in the Nuclear mainfold. India is the only country to be given such a status due to its impeccable record of Nuclear non proliferation.


[edit] Civilian research
The BARC also conducts research in biotechnology at the Gamma Gardens, and has developed numerous disease resistant and high-yielding crop varieties, particularly groundnuts. There is also a great deal of research in Liquid Metal Magnetohydrodynamics for power generation.

On June 4, 2005, with the goal of encouraging research in basic sciences, BARC started the Homi Bhabha National Institute. Research institutions affiliated to BARC include IGCAR (Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research), RRCAT (Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology), and VECC (Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre).

Power projects that have benefited from BARC expertise but which fall under the NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited) are KAPP (Kakrapar Atomic Power Project), RAPP (Rajasthan Atomic Power Project), and TAPP (Tarapur Atomic Power Project).

BUDGETORY ALLOCATION (Rs. in crores) CAPITAL REVENUE TOTAL
PLAN NON-PLAN PLAN NON-PLAN
Budget Estimates 2007-2008 629.10 0.00 13.66 632.29 1275.05
Final Grant 2007-2008 610.00 0.00 21.04 693.02 1324.06
Actual Exp. 2007-2008 599.61 0.00 19.33 683.16 1302.10
Budget Estimates 2008-2009 630.10 0.00 23.45 707.60 1361.15
Actual Exp. 2008-2009 (Up to May 2008) 55.53 0.00 4.63 154.54 214.70