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Indian Nuclear History.

Myth_buster_1

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In 1974, India became the first and only country in the world to explode an atomic bomb made from materials imported for peaceful nuclear purposes.


A glimpse of foreigner input in Indian nuclear program.
India: Nuclear Helpers

The Risk Report
Volume 1 Number 2 (March 1995) Page 8

Western companies have supplied India's controversial nuclear program for more than three decades. All of India's plutonium-making reactors and heavy water production plants are based on foreign designs.

Canada
Supplied the Cirus reactor, which produced plutonium for India's 1974 nuclear weapon test
Supplied India's first two power reactors at Rajasthan, which India copied to build unsafeguarded reactors

China
Sold at least 130 tons of heavy water to a German broker who smuggled the material to India for use in unsafeguarded nuclear reactors

France
Helped build the unsafeguarded Baroda and Tuticorin heavy water plants
Helped build the unsafeguarded Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) at Kalpakkam; trained Indian engineers in France and sent French engineers to work in India

Germany
Supplied unsafeguarded Nangal and Talcher heavy water plants; sold teleperm process control system to Hazira heavy water plant
German firm was fined $800,000 by the U.S. for illegally re-exporting U.S.-origin beryllium
German broker arranged illicit sales of more than 200 tons of heavy water to India
Supplied natural lithium useful in making tritium to boost nuclear bombs
Sold zircalloy pipes which are used as reactor fuel cladding

Norway
More than 26 tons of Norwegian heavy water was diverted to India through Romania and Switzerland

Soviet Union/Russia
Secretly sold at least 80 tons of heavy water to run unsafeguarded reactors

Sweden
Supplied specialized steel tube plates for heavy water reactors
Sold flash X-ray devices, which can be used for nuclear weapon development

Switzerland
Helped build the unsafeguarded Baroda and Tuticorin heavy water plants

United Kingdom
Supplied turbine generator designs used at several unsafeguarded reactors
Repaired damaged heavy water equipment at Madras reactor

United States
Supplied heavy water for Cirus reactor that made plutonium for India's first nuclear bomb
 
United States helped them start a cold war in the sub-continent?

Especially during the time Pakistan was one the US's closest allies?

I call bullshit.
 
Very Informative. :toast_sign:

The crucial importance of the desire for recognition of India as a world power in driving forward the nuclear weapons program, even overshadowing considerations of military necessity and deterrence is underscored by remarks by former weapons program leader Raj Ramanna:

"There was never a discussion among us over whether we shouldn't make the bomb. How to do it was more important. For us it was a matter of prestige that would justify our ancient past. The question of deterrence came much later. Also, as Indian scientists we were keen to show our Western counterparts, who thought little of us those days, that we too could do it."
 
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Yet India has a nuclear deal and Pakistan has no such luck.

Another Growler thread with his desperation to prove everything in India is because of foreign support.


:cheers:
 
Origin of India's Nuclear Weapon Program

India's indigenous efforts in nuclear science and technology were established remarkably early. The first step was taken by Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha in March 1944 when he submitted a proposal to the Sir Dorab Tata Trust (established in honor of Bhabha's own uncle, Sir Dorab Tata) to found a nuclear research institute, over three years before independence and a year before the first nuclear weapon test.
This led to the creation of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) on 19 December 1945 with Bhabha as its first Director.

The new government of India passed the Atomic Energy Act, on 15 April 1948, leading to the establishment of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) not quite one year after independence.

At that time Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru declared:

We must develop this atomic energy quite apart from war - indeed I think we must develop it for the purpose of using it for peaceful purposes. ... Of course, if we are compelled as a nation to use it for other purposes, possibly no pious sentiments of any of us will stop the nation from using it that way."

In 1954 the Indian nuclear program began to move in a direction that would eventually lead to establishment of nuclear weapons capability.

On 3 January 1954 the IAEC decided to set up a new facility - the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET), later to become the "Indian Los Alamos".

On 3 August 1954 the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was created with Dr. Bhabha as Secretary. This department answered directly to the Prime Minister and has continued to do so down to the present day.

The program grew swiftly. The atomic energy budget increased 12-fold from 1954 to 1956. By 1958 the DAE consumed one third of India's research budget. By 1959 AEET employed over one thousand scientists and engineers.

1955 construction began on India's first reactor, the 1 MW Apsara research reactor, with British assistance.

And in September 1955, after more than a year of negotiation, Canada agreed to supply India with a powerful research reactor - the 40 MW Canada-India Reactor (CIR).

Under the Eisenhower Administration's "Atoms for Peace" program the US agreed to supply 21 tons of heavy water for this reactor in Februrary 1956, and the reactor was dubbed the Canada-India Reactor, U.S. or CIRUS

The acquisition of Cirus was a watershed event in nuclear proliferation. Although the sale was made with the understanding that the reactor would only be used for peaceful purposes (the heavy water contract at least made this explicit), it occurred before any international policies were in place to regulate such technology transfers and no provision for inspections were made. And in fact India was careful to ensure that no effective regulation would accompany the reactor.

India refusing to accept fuel from Canada for the reactor and set up a program to manufacture the natural uranium fuel for Cirus indigeneously so as to keep complete control of the plutonium produced there.

This program, led by metallurgist Brahm Prakash, succeeded in developing the techniques for producing the precisely manufactured, high purity material demanded by the reactor.

The reactor was a design ideal for producing weapons-grade plutonium, and was also extraordinarily large for research purposes, being capable of manufacturing enough plutonium for one to two bombs a year.
The acquisition of Cirus was specifically intended by India to provide herself with a weapons option and this reactor produced the plutonium used in India's first nuclear test in 1974; provided the design prototype for India's more powerful Dhruva plutonium production "research" reactor; and is directly responsible for producing nearly half of the weapons grade plutonium currently believed to be in India's stockpile. The sale further set a precedent for similar technology transfers which greatly assisted Israel in obtaining its own plutonium production reactor from France shortly thereafter.

The Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay was formally inaugurated by PM Nehru on 20 January 1957. It acquired its present name -- Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) -- on 12 January 1967 when PM Indira Gandhi renamed it in memory of Dr. Bhabha who died in an airplane crash on 24 January 1966.

Apsara, fueled by enriched uranium from the UK, went critical on 4 August 1957, becoming the first operating reactor in Asia outside of the Soviet Union (though only days ahead of Japan's first reactor). Cirus achieved criticality at BARC on 10 July 1960.

Due to its vast domestic resources of thorium (a potential fuel for breeder reactors) but limited supplies of uranium, from the start of its nuclear program India has always placed strong emphasis on the development of breeder reactor fuel cycles. Breeder reactors require highly concentrated fissionable material for reactor fuel: either highly enriched uranium or plutonium. This provided a peaceful rationale for developing a plutonium separation capability, but the principal impetus for the India's first fuel reprocessing plant was to obtain a nuclear option.

In July 1958 PM Nehru authorized project Phoenix to build a plant with a capacity of 20 tonnes of fuel a year - sized to match the production capacity of Cirus. The plant was based on the U.S. developed Purex process and an American firm, Vitro International prepared the plans for it. Construction of the plutonium plant began at Trombay on 27 March 1961 and was commissioned in mid-1964.
 
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An interesting incident sheds light on Nehru's amd Bhabha's thinking at that time. In 1960 Kenneth Nichols, a former U.S. Army engineer who played significant roles in the Manhattan Project, represented Westinghouse in discussions on power plant construction. In a meeting with Nehru and Bhabha, Nichols relates that Nehru turned to Bhabha and asked:

"Can you develop an atomic bomb?" Bhabha assured him that he could and in reply to Nehru's next question about time, he estimated that he would need about a year to do it. ... He concluded by saying to Bhabha "Well, don't do it until I tell you to."

continued.................
 
With the two projects to necessary to provide the materials for nuclear weapons underway, the Cirus production reactor and the Trombay plutonium plant, Dr. Bhabha then turned his attention to acquiring information about nuclear weapons and initiating preliminary studies of weapon physics.

During the early sixties India's anxieties regarding China greatly increased. Tensions over the border disputes with China rose from 1959 onward, leading to large scale troop deployments by both sides in early 1962.

By 1961 India had become aware of China's nuclear program which gave greater impetus to India's efforts.

In January 1962 Bhabha set up a formal study group in high pressure physics at TIFR, headed by Prof. A.K. Asundi, to explore equations of state in the megabar range, a necessary step for designing implosion weapons.

This group did its work in secret, submitting its papers to Bhabha for review.

A number of public indications show India's increasing interest in nuclear arms. On 9 January 1961 Nehru stated that

We are approaching a stage when it is possible to for us .. to make atomic weapons

on 2 February, Bhabha was asked how long this would take and he responded "about two years I suppose". In September 1962, at Bhabha's urging, Nehru passed the revised Atomic Energy Act giving the central government strict control over all decisions on atomic energy and futher tightening secrecy (this act can perhaps be likened to the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1954). This act explicitly linked atomic energy and its control to national security, scarcely mentioning civilian applications.

Following India's humiliating defeat by China in the Indo-Chinese border war of October-November 1962, the first formal demand for the development of nuclear weapons was made in Parliament, by the Jana Singh party,

in December 1962. Bhabha, well aware that a Chinese nuclear test was not far off (his estimate was then 12 to 18 months), also began secretly agitating for a vigorous effort to match China's, going so far as to ask Nehru to authorize a nuclear test in Ladakh on the Chinese border.

Nehru died on 27 May 1964 and was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri who took office on 2 June. That summer and fall expectations of a Chinese nuclear test steadily increased. PM Shastri, a Gandhian, was strongly opposed to pursuing the Indian nuclear option, and Bhabha began making public statements in favor intended to increase public support and political pressure. On 4 October Bhabha repeated his estimate publicly that India could build a bomb within 18 months of the decision to do so. Interestingly, a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate issued on 16 October thought India capable of developing a weapon in one to three years.
 
Owl's Tree: Pakistani Nuclear Program 2-5

Pakistan began focusing on nuclear development in January 1972 under the leadership of Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who delegated the program to nuclear scientists Munir Ahmad Khan, Abdul Qadeer Khan and military administrator Zahid Ali Akbar Khan under the program called Project-706


Hence, Pakistan began Nuclear weapon's program BEFORE INDIA

This kills the excuse that Pakistan has always been giving, that "We had to make a Nuclear bomb just because India made one" which means that Pakistan has been continuously lying for 3 decades straight.
 
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I am tired of these threads which talk of all the help/ copies/ stealing and other means India has resorted to to make the bomb, balllistic missiles and so on :rolleyes:!

How does it matter!? If there is a war tomorrow and some idiot decides to throw some WMD's at us, I am sure we can give a fitting reply. That's all I care for and that's all that matters. Anyone thinking otherwise is IMO displaying extreme naivette. When the bombs fall, I am sure no one is going to ask where the material/ design came from! :disagree:
 
Growler and his :cry:ing threads .

Let revise some Pak Nuke history.

1974: AQ Khan steals Zippe-type centrifuge technology from Neatherlands.
1980: Pak offer china centrifuge tech
1988: Pak buys nukes from China, also china sends in lots of enriched Uranium to thank Pak.
1990: Pak buys missiles from China
1995: AQ Khan ki chori pakdi gayi
1998: Chagai Test
1998: AQ Khan tried selling bomb to Iraq
2003: Libya and Iran reveal the truth that AQ Khan had sold them nukes and had been trying to strike a deal since 89.
2004: Maafi mangi
2008: AQ Khan reveals that Mush was also involved in proliferation
2008: Saare chor nikle.

History complete.

BTW, this was my 1000th post. :bunny:
 
Growler and his :cry:ing threads .

Let revise some Pak Nuke history.

1974: AQ Khan steals Zippe-type centrifuge technology from Neatherlands.
1980: Pak offer china centrifuge tech
1988: Pak buys nukes from China, also china sends in lots of enriched Uranium to thank Pak.
1990: Pak buys missiles from China
1995: AQ Khan ki chori pakdi gayi
1998: Chagai Test
1998: AQ Khan tried selling bomb to Iraq
2003: Libya and Iran reveal the truth that AQ Khan had sold them nukes and had been trying to strike a deal since 89.
2004: Maafi mangi
2008: AQ Khan reveals that Mush was also involved in proliferation
2008: Saare chor nikle.

History complete.

BTW, this was my 1000th post. :bunny:


Kadak post as ever !
:cheers:


Congrats for becoming a senior member!
 
Jagjit paji..
congrats...
just curious .... whose the gemtleman in your avatar?
Looks like milkha singh`s brother??
 
Growler and his :cry:ing threads .

Let revise some Pak Nuke history.

1974: AQ Khan steals Zippe-type centrifuge technology from Neatherlands.
1980: Pak offer china centrifuge tech
1988: Pak buys nukes from China, also china sends in lots of enriched Uranium to thank Pak.
1990: Pak buys missiles from China
1995: AQ Khan ki chori pakdi gayi
1998: Chagai Test
1998: AQ Khan tried selling bomb to Iraq
2003: Libya and Iran reveal the truth that AQ Khan had sold them nukes and had been trying to strike a deal since 89.
2004: Maafi mangi
2008: AQ Khan reveals that Mush was also involved in proliferation
2008: Saare chor nikle.

History complete.

BTW, this was my 1000th post. :bunny:

Growler, are your innocent?

Investigation: Nuclear scandal - Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan - Times Online

---------- Post added at 11:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 PM ----------

Jagjit paji..
congrats...
just curious .... whose the gemtleman in your avatar?
Looks like milkha singh`s brother??

He is former Indian Amry chief General J.J. Singh.
 
This is reproduction of Screaming Skull post which i found very helpful during my days of lurking around at defence.pk

* The natural Uranium that went into the CIRUS reactor was 100% Indian. The ore was extracted from Indian mines by Indian workers – processed by Indian scientists and engineers to extract natural Uranium from it and fed into the reactor for electricity generation! The spent fuel that comes out from reactors is not suitable for making bombs. It needs to re-processed and Plutonium needs to be extracted from it. This too was done by Indian scientists and engineers using indigenous reprocessing technologies!

Here is India’s nuclear fuel cycle flowsheet until 1974:


Indigenous natural uranium extracted from ores discovered in 1949 and 1967 went into the CIRUS reactor which produced 115.5 tons of spent fuel or depleted uranium till 1974!

The role of CIRUS reactor ends there.

The 115.5 tons depleted Uranium was reprocessed in the Indian PHOENIX reprocessing plant and Indian PURNIMA-1 spectrum pulsed reactor to produce approximately 18 kg of weapons grade plutonium, out of which 6 kg was used for our 1974 weapons tests!

So, "the fuel that went in was Indian and hence whatever came out was Indian too"

  • India signed the agreement to PURCHASE the Canada-India Reactor (CIR) from Canada in 1955 while the IAEA came into existence only in 1957.
  • India paid for the CIRUS reactor with Canada taking care of the foreign exchange component of the cost only. So, technically India owns the reactor!
  • No strict safeguards on the use of the spent fuel/depleted uranium produced by the reactor were made other than the commitment by India, via an annex to the agreement, that the reactor and fissile materials it produced would be used only for peaceful purposes, hence NOT BINDING!
  • On March 16, 1956, a contract was signed by the U.S. and India (again before the creation of IAEA) for supply of 18.9 tons of heavy water for the reactor. This agreement was based on the possibility that India’s own Nangal heavy water plant may fail to operate at the required capacity factor. Following this, the reactor was dubbed the Canada-India Reactor, United States (CIRUS). (US supplied Heavy Water under agreement)

Bottomline- NO IAEA – No concept of non-proliferation – NO binding agreement – ALL deals done in the open – Indian fuel went into the reactor – Indian fuel went into the Bomb! End of story!

venn - diagram

athreat1.gif

Courtesy- National Resources Defense Council

It shows the historical sharing of nuclear weapons knowledge among countries, which shows the self-reliant unique nature of the Indian weapons programme. Sharing of knowledge is expressed by intersection of circles. The number in the brackets after each country is the number of tests carried out by it. The number 4 against India is related to the authors’ axiom that any two tests carried out simultaneously within one kilometer would be counted as one. Thus the May 11 tests count as two because the 15 kt fission device and the 45 kt thermonuclear device were tested simultaneously a kilometre apart while the sub-kiloton device was tested further away. The two sub-kiloton devices tested simultaneously on May 13 are again counted as one test. With inclusion of the May 1974 test, the total number is 4. Same being the case with the number against Pakistan.

Source- Christopher E. Paine, Senior Researcher and Co-Director, NRDC Nuclear Program, and Matthew G. McKinzie, Project Scientist, NRDC Nuclear Program. A shorter version of this article appeared in the journal Science and Global Security, 1998, Volume 7, pp. 151-193.
 

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