"The reason for the fire accident, as indicated by the report of Investigation Committee set up by BARC, is low intensity explosive energy released from accidental mixing of small quantities of reactive chemicals stored in the Chemical Laboratory," Minister of State in PMO Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Rediff reader Eakanath Bandu Lote, 40 from Mumbai tells us how much his life has changed since his first salary.
Seismologists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre have found that the earthquake counts go up steadily when the moon comes closer to the Earth (perigee) and also when it is Full Moon.
The union government is planning to set up energy parks in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu with a target to generate 60,000 MW of power through use of nuclear fuel, Srikumar Banerjee, chairman, Atomic Energy Commision (AEC) said.
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has said that an incident of minor radioactive contamination was detected in one of its laboratories.
In a major relief for Delhi residents, all the missing cobalt pencils auctioned to a scrap dealer by the Delhi University have been recovered, a month after eight people were exposed to radiation in the national capital's Mayapuri area. The National Radiation Emergency Response team of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre recovered 16 cobalt pencils from a Gamma cell, which was scattered in a scrap yard in Mayapuri, exposing eight persons to radiation. One of them had died later
Experts on Friday identified the material -- which led to a 'very powerful' radiation in an industrial area in Delhi -- as Cobalt-60, the exposure to which left five persons injured. Scientists from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Narora Atomic Power Station also scanned Mayapuri industrial area on Friday morning to examine whether there was any other source of a similar emission in the vicinity. Panic was triggered in the locality on Thursday night after the news broke
Nuclear tests of 1998 have given us capability to build deterrence both in fission and fusion categories, Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, said on Thursday.
A 27-year-old woman scientist working with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre allegedly committed suicide at its quarters in high-security Anushakti Nagar in Mumbai's eastern suburbs , police said on Thursday.
Security agencies today did not rule out the possibility of execution of plans by Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashker-e-Tayiba of the places recced by David Headley, an American terror suspect, arrested in the United States last October.
The family members of Partha Bag, one of the victims of the mysterious fire at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai, have demanded a probe. Bag's relatives have said that the Central Bureau of Investigation should undertake the probe.Questioning the mysterious circumstances that led to the deaths of Bag and another research student, Bag's neighbours also accused BARC of not providing adequate security.
46-year old Subash Sonawane, a tradesman working in the Waste Management Division of BARC, had entered the premises at 0800 on Friday morning. His body was found after around two hours later in a well near the Waste Immobilization Plant (WIP), a press release issued by BARC said.
Solar energy-based small and community level reverse osmosis unit has been developed for producing safe drinking water, Saly T Panicker of the Desalination Division of BARC said.
BARC uses sea water for its two research reactors--Dhruva and Cirus--for cooling purposes. "We have asked BARC not to use sea water for any of their facilities as it is polluted with oil spill from vessels after a collision on Saturday," a senior Coast Guard official told PTI on condition of anonymity.
India plans to offer an astronomical site at Hanle in Leh for an international collaboration which is exploring the possibility of setting up two large gamma-ray telescope arrays in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, a senior astronomer said.
Baldev Raj, scientist and director, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, said the current installed nuclear power generation capacity is likely to increase five-fold to 25,000 Mwe by 2050 from the current 3,900 Mwe. The proposed expansion would require over Rs 125,000 crore. Nuclear power accounts for 3 per cent of India's total electricity generation and is estimated to go up to 25 per cent in 2050.
A forensic probe of the fire that broke out at a Bhabha Atomic Research Centre lab in which two research students were burnt alive found no evidence of explosives or inflammable residue even as the exact cause was still wrapped in mystery ten days after the blaze.
The Department of Atomic Energy today ruled out the possibility of an external hand in the recent fire at a lab in the premier Bhabha Atomic Research Laboratory that killed two young scientists.
"The fire broke out in the chemical lab on the third floor of the Modular lab at the BARC," director and AEC chairman Sreekumar Banerjee told PTI. The Fire Brigade and police are yet to ascertain the cause of the blaze, which broke out on Tuesday afternoon. Fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the blaze was doused within 45 minutes.
The failure of India's sole H-bomb is the latest in the Department of Atomic Energy and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre's long history of being economical with the truth.
The body of a missing computer engineer of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research at Kalpakkam near Chennai has been found, the police said on Friday. The body of 37-year old S Ananthanarayanan was found near the railway track between Vandalur and Guduvancherry section on February 15, the day he went missing, but was identified only on Thursday night by his father-in-law, said the Kalpakkam police.
Two more fast breeder reactors of 500 mega watt electric capacity each would be set up here by 2020, a top official of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research said on Tuesday.
The fire at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre was not a mere accident and could be 'some one's' way of checking the preparedness of the nuclear centre in the backdrop of intelligence reports of a possible terror attack, said former director of the centre A N Prasad.
'If the US withdraws, where do we stand with all the starved costly reactors? We will be left with only the hazardous waste to deal with. The way the terms of the deal are structured, it is clear that we have only the legal right to test which cannot be implemented due to tremendous consequences,' says nuclear scientist A N Prasad, a known critic of the nuclear deal.
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre said on Tuesday the agency is developing a prototype compact high temperature reactor to produce hydrogen as substitute for fossil fuels.
Former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Dr. P K Iyengar, former chairman of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board Dr A Gopalakrishnan and former director of Bhabha Atomic Research Center Dr.A.N. Prasad say that there is a great deal of disquiet among the scientific community at large about the deal. They also said they met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discussed about the after-effects of the deal, besides writing to the MPS.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei on Tuesday inaugurated Bhabhatron-II, an indigenously developed advanced computerised telecobalt machine for the treatment of cancer. ElBaradei, who is on a three-day trip to India, visited the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai where he inaugurated Bhabhatron-II at the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer here.
The much-awaited Advanced Heavy Water Reactor may be the first reactor to come up in populated areas like the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
The mistake the enemies of the deal in India and the US are making is to seek satisfaction over their own wish list.
UN atomic energy chief Mohammed El-Baradei began a three-day visit to India as the ruling United Progressive Alliance-Left alliance appeared headed for a break-up over the India-United States civil nuclear energy pact.
The Department of Atomic Energy invites applications for its one-year Orientation Course for engineering graduates at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Training School at Kalpakkam as part of the BARC Training School programme.
This will make Apsara off-limits to the IAEA, once the Indo-US N-deal kicks in.
BARC worked for nearly three years to find the source, origin, route and recharge zone of the spring.
Any future arrangement would be implemented keeping in view the national interest, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Director S Banerjee has said.
Apsara has played a key role in research in areas as diverse as forensic science and the study of lunar and meteorite fragments.
India must explore uranium aggresively: Atomic energy chief
"India, with long-standing experience in operating nuclear plants and building human and knowledge resources, can be a guiding force for new entrants seeking to harness atomic technology for producing power."
Usually BARC buses bring the employees to the main gate and all the employees get down and walk through metal detector in addition to getting verified electronically their I-cards by the BARC securities.
While the government response remains cautious but unmistakably positive, the critics' earlier opposition to the deal remains unchanged.