India tested its first nuclear device way back in May 1974. In May 1998, the country successfully conducted five under-ground nuclear tests. These tests varied from simple fission devices similar to the Atom Bomb used in Hiroshima to the complicated fusion devices. This heralded India’s entry into select group of six countries possessing capability to make nuclear weapons including Hydrogen Bombs.

    The country aims to harness nuclear energy for electricity generation and for applications of radioisotopes in agriculture, medicine and industry; develop front line areas such as accelerators, lasers, information technology and others and promote R&D in nuclear sciences. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) implements these programmes and policies through the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) is the regulatory organisation. DAE has five R&D organisations, four public sector undertakings, three industrial organisations, four service organisations and seven aided institutions.

    Prospecting of uranium and other minerals needed for nuclear power programme is carried out by the Atomic Minerals Division (AMD) while uranium is mined and processed by Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL). UCIL has mines at Jaduguda, Bhatin and Narwapahar and recovery plants in Surda, Rakha and Mosaboni. India Rare Earth (IRE) with plants in Manavalakurichi, Chavara and Chhatrapur mines and processes mineral sands containing thorium and rare earth minerals. IRE has a rare earth plant in Alwaye and thorium factory in Trombay.

    The Heavy Water Board(HWB) at Mumbai oversees the production of heavy water. It has 8 heavy water plants at Nangal, Tuticorin, Rawatbhata, Baroda, Thal, Talcher, Manuguru and Hazira. The Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) at Hyderabad produces nuclear fuel. BARC operates fuel reprocessing plants at Tarapur, Trombay and Kalpakkam.

    The nuclear power reactors are built and operated by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL). The NPCIL has set up 10 nuclear power reactors – two each in Tarapur (2x160 MW), Rawatbhata (100 MW & 200 MW), Kalpakkam (2x170 MW), Narora (2x220 MW) and Kakrapar (2x220 MW). The Tarapur reactors are Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) while the rest are Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs).

    Kaiga Atomic Power Project-1&2 (2x220 MWe PHWRs), Rajasthan Atomic Power Project-3&4 (2x220 MWe PHWRs) and Tarapur Atomic Power Project-3&4 (2x550 MWe PHWRs) are the ongoing projects of NPCIL. One 220 megawatt(e) reactor each at Kaiga and Rawatbhatta attained criticality on September 24 and December 24, 1999 respectively. The Kaiga unit was synchronised to the Southern grid on December 2, 1999 and Rajasthan unit will follow suit soon. The main plant civil contracts of TAPP-3&4 project were awarded and the works have progressed.

    For over five years, NPCIL has been showing consistent improvement in its operations. During April 1, 1999 to February 29, 2000, NPCIL increased the overall capacity factor of its atomic power stations to nearly 80 per cent from a capacity factor of 75 per cent during 1998-99 (excluding Rajasthan Atomic Power Station-1). It registered a gross electricity generation of about 11,950 million units during this period. The company achieved a net profit of nearly Rs. 450 crore (provisional) during the financial year 1999-2000 up to February 2000 and paid Rs. 50.44 crore as maiden dividend to the Government.

    India has a three-phased nuclear programme aimed at utilising abundantly found thorium. The first stage is setting up of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors and associated fuel cycle facilities with natural uranium as fuel. The country has already completed this stage.

    The second phase envisages setting up of Fast Breeder Reactors, reprocessing plants and plutonium based fuel fabrication plants. When the Fast Breeder Test Reactor at Kalpakkam attained criticality in 1985, India became the sixth country in the world after USA, UK, the erstwhile USSR, France and Japan to build and operate a fast breeder reactor. The third stage will be based on thorium -uranium-233 fuel system. Uranium-233 is to be obtained by irradiation of thorium in Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) and Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs). Uranium – 233 has been successfully used in Kamini Research Reactor and thorium has been used for flux flattening in the initial cores of the Kakrapar Reactors. Work is progressing on the design of an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, which will use thorium as fuel.

    The Department of Atomic Energy has five R&D organisations - Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) at Trombay, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) at Calcutta, Centre for Advanced Technology (CAT) at Indore and Atomic Minerals Division (AMD) at Hyderabad.

    BARC is a premier nuclear research and development centre in the country. Its facilities include research reactors and plants for manufacture of Uranium , nuclear fuels, fuel processing and waste immobilisation. IGCAR is engaged in development of sodium cooled fast breeder reactor technology, related fuel cycle and safety. The Centre which operates FBTR, is developing 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR). CAT spearheads the national efforts in research and development of lasers, accelerators, high vaccuum technology and cryogenics. The Centre is setting up Synchrotron Radiation Sources (SRS) which will be an unique facility in the country. VECC is a national research centre in nuclear field.

    Research Projects in universities and institutes in nuclear sciences are funded by DAE’s Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS) and the National Board for Higher Mathematics (NBHM). Besides the five R&D organisations, there are seven fully aided research institutes including Tata Institute of Fundamental Research at Mumbai, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics at Calcutta, Institute of Physics at Bhubaneshwar and Institute of Mathematical Sciences at Chennai.

    The first research reactor Apsara was commissioned in BARC in 1956 followed by Cirus (1960), Purnima I to III (1972 to 1984), Dhruva (1985), FBTR (1985) and Kamini (1996). The Dhruva reactor at BARC is a high nuetron flux reactor, which was designed, constructed and commissioned entirely by Indian Scientists, a significant engineering achievement. BARC is now developing an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR).

    The area of radiation technology and radioisotope applications has been identified as an important technology mission. Extensive infrastructure has been developed to give impetus to radioisotope production and applications. BARC, which has been producing radioisotopes for about four decades, is a major producer of radioisotopes for use in industry, medicine, agriculture and research. The Board of Radiation & Isotope Technology (BRIT) is responsible for promotion of radiation and Isotope technologies relating to radiopharmaceuticals, radiochemicals, radiosterilisation services for medical products, radiography equipment, radiosources and others. During the year 1999, more than 50.000 consignments of radioisotope products valued at Rs. 17.84 crore were supplied for use in industry, research, agriculture and health care.

    Radioisotopes in Industry: The radioisotopes produced at Trombay are widely used by industry for non-destructive testing, measurements, radiography and tracer applications. Medical industry is a major beneficiary of BRIT’s radiation sterilization facilities. Isomed Plant at Trombay for sterilization of medical products has serviced the industry for more than two decades. Similar plants have been working at Bangalore, New Delhi and Jodhpur.

    Radioisotopes in Medicine: More than half of the isotopes produced in India are used for medical diagnosis and therapy. Radioisotopes from BARC are processed by BRIT for production of radiopharmaceuticals, radioisotope based products and equipment. The radiopharmaceuticals supplied by BRIT are used in about 0.7 million patient investigations per year. BRIT is also a major supplier of radioactive sources, which are used in radiodiagnosis and radiotherapy in hospitals throughout the country. It supplied over 45,000 consignments of different radiopharmaceuticals, cold kits and radioimmunoassay kits to various nuclear medicine centres and RIA laboratories for diagnostic and therapeutic uses.

    At Trombay, the hydrogel preparations, developed for healing burn injuries, underwent clinical test successfully. BARC developed a process for preparation of Iodine-125 source for use in the treatment of ocular tumours and prostate cancer. The Radiotion Medicine Centre (RMC) of BARC continued to serve as a regional referral centre of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the South East Asia. At the Regional Radiation Medicine Centre at Calcutta the medical LINAC benefitted more than 7000 patients were provided with therapy and scanning facility. Radioimmuno-Assay serviced about 5000 patients.

    Radioisotopes in Agriculture: Radioisotopes produced in BARC have been used in crop improvement, food preservation and other agricultural applications. BARC’s mutation breeding programme for crop improvement has resulted in the evolution of high yielding varieties of pulses, oilseeds, rice and jute. Many of these have reached the farmers and are cultivated in different parts of the country. BARC has also established irradiation technology for preservation of food. In agriculture radioisotopes have helped in monitoring the persistence of pesticides in soil and ground water. Biotechnological applications covered micropropagation of economically important crops and production of bioactive compounds using plant cell culture and enzyme and microbial technology BARC transferred several technologies which included release of genetically improved crop varieties, transfer of protocols for large scale multiplication of tissue culture raised banana, transfer of bio-reactor technology for large scale production of plant biomass and transfer of biopesticide development technology.

    Food Technology: in the field of Food Technology, the research and development work related to preservation of food by gamma radiation as well as by the conventional and emerging methods. The Commercial Demonstration Plant for Radiation Processing of Spices set up at Vashi, Navi Mumbai by BRIT, became operational regular processing of spices in this plant commenced. The plant is designed for a maximum capacity of 1000 kilocuries of cobalt-60 source.

    At Trombay, the Food Package Irradiator and other experimental facilities for irradiation were used for irradiation of food and experimental samples.

    Safety has been an integral part of DAE activities. NPCIL has completed over 160 reactor years of operation with good record of safety which emcompasses facets such as radiological safety, industrial safety, fire safety and environment protection. In all the nuclear installations, care is taken to protect operating personnel, public and the environment, Safety is monitored by an independent body, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).

    Setup at different sites, the Environment Survey Labs (ESLs) equipped with sophisticated equipment, constantly monitor environment, and advanced systems collect site related meteorological data. A national network of environmental radiation monitoring stations is being established for detection of radiation releases as a part of global environmental radiation monitoring (GERMON) network. BARC's personnel radiation monitoring services benefit about 32,000 radiation workers every year.