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http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/23272/Hecker_sciencediplomacy_physicstoday.pdf
Adventures in scientific nuclear diplomacy
Siegfried S. Hecker
former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory
South Asia's Nuclear risk
Adventures in scientific nuclear diplomacy
Siegfried S. Hecker
former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory
South Asia's Nuclear risk
My visits to India, by contrast, have proved to be quite
productive. Following the peaceful nuclear explosion India
conducted in 1974, its nuclear complex was under sanctions
for 34 years, until the USIndia nuclear deal in 2008. But over
the past six years, I have made five visits there, traveling to
see the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Mumbai, which
houses both civilian and weapons research, and the Indira
Gandhi Center for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam, which is
focused primarily on fast reactors. I toured Indian commercial
nuclear reactor facilities and learned about their ambitious
plans for a three-stage nuclear energy program. I found
a superbly trained community of nuclear scientists and engineers
with a passion for nuclear energythe bomb business
at the laboratories appears to be more of what an Indian colleague
called a cottage industry.
Constrained by sanctions, India developed most of its
nuclear energy capabilities indigenously, especially its excellent
nuclear R&D; the extent and functionality of its nuclear
experimental facilities are matched only by those in Russia
and are far ahead of what is left in the US. I believe India has
the most technically ambitious and innovative nuclear energy
program in the world. Our government has been concerned
about leakage of US nuclear technologies to India,
when we should instead be trying to learn from that country.