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India can make nuke bomb
of up to 200 kt yield: Chidambaram

''The five carefully planned and completely successful nuclear weapon tests at Pokhran on May 11 and 13, 1998, and confirmation of design yields by seismic, radiochemical and other studies carried out by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), gave us the capability to design and fabricate nuclear weapons ranging from low yield to around 200 kilo tons,'' Dr Chidambaram told nuclear scientists and technocrats at the BARC.

''That was in May 1998 and since then a great deal of scientific and technological development has taken place,'' he said on the occasion of the 91st birth anniversary of father of India's nuclear programme, Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha, celebrated as BARC founder's day.

''Nuclear weapon technology is not one technology, but a mixture of many scientific disciplines and technologies'', he said.

BARC director Dr Anil Kakodkar said the post-test investigations of the May 1998 nuclear blasts were complete. ''These have confirmed that all objectives of the tests have been fully met,'' he informed the gathering.

Reiterating Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement that ''India is now a nuclear weapon state'', Chidambaram said, ''All thanks to the vast multi-disciplinary capabilities which the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has built up deliberately and with forethought over the years.''

Following the nuclear tests, rock samples were collected from the test sites at Pokhran in the desert state of Rajasthan by drilling by the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research through emplacement points and nearby areas. Scientists from BARC have estimated the yields from the seismic and radioactivity measurements, and from analysis of the data from other close-in measurements carried out at the time of tests, which have confirmed the initially declared yields of the tests.

In May 1998, tests included three sub-kilo ton devices in addition to a thermo-nuclear device and a standard fission device.

According to sources, gamma radiation logging was carried out in the bore holes drilled at each of these test sites and the declared yields were confirmed. Several seismic specialists abroad have endorsed the success of the tests.

UNI

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