SAARC COUNTRIES : US$ 20 REST OF THE WORLD : US$ 25

SEPTEMBER 2010

INDIA : ` 120
VOLUME 1
ISSN

ISSUE 12

0976-206X

9 770976 206003

NUCLEAR SPECIAL
ENERGY WEAPONS TRADE

Indo-US nuclear cooperation Nuclear power programme Table-top nuclear energy! Nuclear technology

-3 S T S IZE E T S PR N U . COULO No A AB ge S D IN F Pa W 86

editor-in-chief

mission
The power of a King lies in his mighty arms
Security of the citizens at peace time is very important because State is the only saviour of the men and women who get affected only because of the negligence of the State.

DSA is as much yours, as it is ours!

Chanakya

uclear sciences are still regarded as one of the pinnacles of human intellectual achievement. The sheer expanse of their properties is indeed a field of knowledge that adds diplomatic prestige to a country. And when coupled with their destructive potential they bring a military stature that is difficult to ignore. Hence the globally restrictive regimes that continue to be in place, even after the horses have bolted, so to say. Knowledge is sought to be denied, even when it is available in school textbooks. For it is the destructive nature of its misuse that brings nightmares to policy makers around the world. Human beings continue to battle each other through the realms of knowledge and technology denial regimes as though they are the masters of their fate and of this earth! Nowhere has this notion been more destroyed and no pun intended here, than in the daily tragedy that are the Pakistan flood. Nature, gods or deities, whatever suits the analyst, have responded in a quiet fury that is unprecedented in the modern era. No geographical or political landmass has been as inundated in living memory as has Pakistan. It is a flood that could quite easily fit the bill for footage of The Great Flood of the Noahs Ark. Nothing in human reminiscence can match the scale of natures fury in Pakistan. It is a tragedy that is playing before the eyes, in all its elements. And which begs the question about the role of humankind in the pursuit of knowledge, the sciences, research and development for destruction. The invincibility of human attitudes has been laid bare by the outpouring of the skies. Making intellectual achievements redundant when exposed to the most elemental of natures giving, rain. All the aircraft, missiles, tanks, artillery guns and rifles, on display across Pakistans urban traffic space are aimed in the direction of India. As if the only worry that the country has is its eastern neighbour. National, provincial or municipal governance has only looked eastwards in its threat perceptions. Never within, or upwards. It remained so mired in its anxieties that there was never an attempt at analysing its own direction, as a State, or as a society. But moments come in history that provide just such an opportunity to pause and ponder. Pakistan has been given precisely that chance by the elements of nature conspiring with the absence of rudiments of the State. Will it take the chance is the question that torments all those concerned about the direction of that State, and its society. It is an opportunity not just for Pakistan, but also for the world at large. And Pakistan knows it all too well, so it is making precisely veiled threats about extremism as it has since it evolved a foreign and security policy based on the use of terror as an instrument of diplomacy. Ignoring the social conditions of Pakistan has cost valuable human lives across the world. But now the threat that looms from that flooded land is far greater than a possible dirty nuclear bomb. Pakistan is truly a global problem now and not just because it has traded nuclear secrets.

manvendra singh

September 2010 Defence AND security alert

publishers view
The word nuclear has acquired an everyday familiarity largely because of the intense debate and far-reaching effect of the Indo-US deal on the civilian uses of the atom. Otherwise, for most Indians it was a word used in physics textbooks which, by the very nature of the streaming of education, left many of those who did not choose science in school to be just vaguely aware of the peaceful uses of nuclear or atomic energy. There was no way that they could not have but been acutely aware of the destructive power of the atom after the bombing by the US of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, slaughtering millions in a jiffy and leaving those who survived outside ground zero to suffer the after-effects of the blast, the burns and the radiation effects till death released them from their pains. One is not sure that America and the rest of those who have acquired nuclear weapons technology are really serious about the Nonproliferation they speak so glibly about but make no move towards nuclear disarmament that could rid the world of the threat of self-destruct in one moment of madness. Madness reminds us of what was done to Iraq on the specious excuse of removing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) from the hands of an unstable dictator. The dictator of Iraq is no more and till date they could not find a single nuclear device and the worst that they could point to as evidence was a factory producing milk powder for children. Something similar is apparently being prepared to be done to neighbouring Iran which is being charged with converting its nuclear power facilities to bomb-making factories. Yet, inexplicably, not a finger is being raised against Pakistan which has a huge weapons stockpile; a proven tendency to proliferate weapons of mass destruction and eager to use nuclear weapons if terrorists nurtured in its madrassas are not allowed to succeed in creating strategic depth in neighbouring territories. The terrorist groups on the other hand are threatening to steal nuclear weapons from Pakistans arsenal and use them directly for their nefarious ends. Pakistan is in such a pathetic situation today that there is no way of preventing it from happening and even its mentor, the US, is quite jittery about the prospects of nuclear weapons falling into jihadi hands. If it happens then I am sure that it will be the last nail in the coffin of humanity. Are the people of Pakistan ready for this? The world has already seen how North Korea acquired nuclear weapons with Pakistani assistance and is now openly threatening to use them. But one thing is very evident that India is the only nation-State with a proven record of using the atom for peaceful purposes be it in power generation or agriculture or medicine for the greater good of humanity. Indias first Atomic Energy Act was passed and Atomic Energy Commission was set up in 1948 and Indias first nuclear reactor apsara was commissioned in 1958. At present we have 17 reactors in operation and 6 under construction. Beside the generation of power through nuclear means, India is also using this strong tool for the benefit of humanity. The Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) is one of its kind which is dedicated to the usage of nuclear technology to cure many ailments and is continuously conducting research in the use of the atom and isotopes in the medical field. India believes in peace and therefore has always tried to steer the world towards the peaceful uses of the atom in the interest of humanity so as to make this beautiful world a haven of peace and prosperity. We have tried to cover nuclear technology in all its aspects by including articles by Indias topnotch experts to make this issue interesting and informative for every reader. DSA will be completing a year this month and this will be our 12th issue being offered to you. Though DSA faced many challenges from the date of its inception but with the great support of our contributors, readers, admirers, advertisers and the entire team of DSA we could get through these challenges and we are resolutely marching ahead to the second year and I assure you, dear reader, that we shall always endeavour to deliver more than you have come to expect from DSA, no matter what. We all at DSA take this opportunity to pay our respectful homage to Dr. Homi Bhabha for his grand vision and laying a strong foundation for Indias development in nuclear technology. JAI HIND!

announcement

Volume 1 Issue 12 September 2010

A N N O U N C E S
October 2010 ISSUE AS

chairman shyam sunder publisher & ceo pawan agrawal editor-in-chief manvendra singh director shishir bhushan corporate consultant k j singh art consultant divya gupta central saint martins college of art & design, university of arts, london corporate communications monika kanchan representative J&K salil sharma creative vivek anand pant correspondent (europe) dominika cosic production dilshad & dabeer webmaster sundar rawat photographers subhash, deepak circulation & distribution prem gupta ranjeet, sandeep, vikram system administrator vikas e-mail: (first name)@dsalert.org info: info@dsalert.org articles: articles@dsalert.org subscri ption: subscription@dsalert.org online edition: online@dsalert.org advertisement: advt@dsalert.org editorial & business office 4/19 asaf ali road new delhi-110002(India) t: +91-011-23243999,23287999 f: +91-11-23259666 e: info@dsalert.org www.dsalert.org

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contents

NUCLEAR SPECIAL

ISSUE

SEPTEMBER

2010

Volume 1 Issue 12 September 2010

A R T I C L E S
Indo-US nuclear cooperation: an analysis Krishnamurthy Santhanam nuclear technology: for defence and energy Dr. P. K. Iyengar nuclear systems: the road ahead Dr. L. V. Krishnan table-top nuclear energy! Dr. M. Srinivasan jihad and nuclear weapons: apocalyptic? K. Subrahmanyam nuclear treaties and ground realities Arundhati Ghose nuclear power programme: mortgaging the future? Prof. Ashok Parthasarathi Sino-Pak nexus Dr. Harsh Pant Pak nukes: how safe? Brig. Gurmeet Kanwal arms reduction conundrum Dr. Rajiv Nayan Chernobyl lessons Dominika Cosic Indo-US nuclear deal: harnessing Indian potential Dr. Sanjeev Bhadauria Indias two-track approach Dr. Manpreet Sethi India and non-proliferation Dr. Arvind Kumar Indias next nuclear frontier: reactors Ramtanu Maitra nuclear medicine: a boon for humanity Dr. Anupam Mondal radiological terrorism Dr. Rakesh Kumar Sharma nuclear weapons free world? Dr. Rajendra Prasad Pakistan's nuclear complex: threatening world peace? Aditi Malhotra

contents
O T H E R S
nuclear digest DSA contest cartoon

08 12 17 22 28 33 37 43 46 51
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32 86 87

55 59 62 65 69 72 75 81

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September 2010 Defence AND security alert

September 2010 Defence AND security alert

nuclear world

nAtiOnAl interest

Fears over a curtailment of nuclear weapons testing in the future appear to be overblown given that India is currently exercising a selfimposed unilateral moratorium. However, even the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement acknowledges that a substantial change in the security environment on Indias periphery will allow India to test to improve its nuclear arsenal in defence of its supreme national interests.

Krishnamurthy Santhanam

Indo-US nuclear cooperation: an analysis

Marxist criticism

Failsafe delivery

September 2010 Defence AnD security Alert

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nuclear world

nAtures BOunty

India has long been at loggerheads with the nuclear haves over the uses of the atom. The fact is that nuclear energy is amenable to both mass destruction as well as civilisational improvements and this dual use has been employed to try and keep India in check. But for the foresight of Dr. Homi Bhabha and Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru this nation could have succumbed to such pressures. Thanks to them our position that if threatened we will use the atom for defence otherwise the first option is for the well-being of the people of India, has found acceptance.

nuclear technology: for defence and energy

Release of nuclear energy

Dr. P . K. Iyengar

Peaceful uses

Military uses

Revolutions in knowledge

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nuclear world

nAtures BOunty

Dual-use fears

With a large R&D base, scientific m a n p o w e r, creative thinking and generous support from the government, India and China are poised to make inroads into the growth of technology in the future, whether it is in energy production or for devices in defence

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nuclear world

nAtures BOunty

nuclear world

POWer GenerAtiOn

nuclear systems: the road ahead

Dr. L. V. Krishnan

Simultaneously with construction of large capacity fast breeder and advanced heavy water reactors India needs to accelerate reprocessing facilities that extract plutonium from spent fuel. The recent agreement with the US on reprocessing spent fuel from nuclear projects set up in collaboration with US firms has helped. Using nuclear reactors to produce hydrogen for cars of the future will ensure a large dose of security because transportation is dependent on imported hydrocarbons.

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nuclear world

POWer GenerAtiOn

Accelerator driven systems

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nuclear world

POWer GenerAtiOn

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nuclear world

enerGy security

table-top nuclear energy!

If ever there was a flash in the pan, Cold Fusion was in 1989. Two chemical scientists announced to the world that they had experienced excess heat in a test tube electrolysis experiment at room temperature. It conjured up visions of the disappearance of massive ironclad Calandria vessels to contain massive heat and pressure to start an atomic chain reaction in a reactor. Hopes of desktop reactors bloomed till an official US experts group said it found no proof to substantiate the claims. Since then, experiments in Cold Fusion which has now come to be known as Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (CMNS) are producing exciting new discoveries and some say the results could be earth-shaking.
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Dr. M. Srinivasan

Chain reaction

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nuclear world

enerGy security

Every now and then the citadel of science is rocked by the discovery of a new phenomenon that the scientific community finds difficult to digest. The Theory of Relativity and Quantum Physics were two such paradigm shifts that shook the very foundations of physics in the 20th century, although when first propounded they too had many detractors

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nuclear world

enerGy security

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nuclear world

DisArMAMent

jihad and nuclear weapons: apocalyptic?

K. Subrahmanyam

While there has always been a lot of talk about disarmament and abjuring nuclear weapons few nuclear weapons powers have taken the first step by declaring a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons. India is an absolute exception: It wants disarmament and has announced a policy of no first use. In fact it would not have gone nuclear had it not been for the continuing cooperation in creating nuclear bombs between two of its neighbours China and Pakistan one a regional power and the other the cradle of jihad.
Disarmament

Off on tangent

New logic

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Nuclear digest
Nuclear energy and Nuclear weapons
Team DSA
Nuclear energy is nonrenewable energy source. Given below are some interesting facts about nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.

nuclear world

...and the myths

nuclear treaties and

BeyOnD nPt

The facts...

g ro u n d re a l i t i e s

Arundhati Ghose

Sub rosa is a phrase very apt to the American position on nuclear weapons proliferation. It means under the rose bush and implies opacity, non-transparency and downright deceit. The Bush familys contribution to Pakistani nuclear proliferation is stark in the face of repeated warnings by US experts that it is just two screwdriver turns away in perfecting the bomb-in-the-basement through A. Q. Khans nuclear thuggery. Even today US policy is skewed against Iran even as terrorists are converging on Pakistans nuclear stockpile.

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nuclear world

BeyOnD nPt

nuclear world

MOnuMentAl Mess

mortgaging the future?

nuclear power programme:

Prof. Ashok Parthasarathi

A former Science Adviser to Indira Gandhi lays bare a scenario of neglect and grave errors that could bring even the hard-won indigenous reactors of Homi Bhabhas third stage - the thoriumbased Fast Breeders also within the scope of IAEA safeguards and perpetual intrusive inspections under the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. The inexplicable s l o w d o w n in exploration and exploitation of indigenous natural uranium mines set the stage for future errors.

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nuclear world

MOnuMentAl Mess

Our Three Stage Nuclear Power Programme of Bhabha fame are all intimately interconnected. Once the initial Plutonium 239 is covered by the so called safeguards but, actually, highly intrusive international inspections by the IAEA, is fed as a key component of the composite PlutoniumThorium fuel into the Fast Breeders, those reactors would ALSO come under PERPETUAL INSPECTION and the same applies to the Uranium 233 which is the key element of the fuel for the Thorium Breeders!! This is the Frankenstein of PURSUING SAFEGUARDS / INSPECTIONS!

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nuclear world

MOnuMentAl Mess

nuclear world

PrOliferAtiOn

SINO-PAK nexus
Dr. Harsh V. Pant

If, as is generally accepted, Pakistans duality in the War On Terror was intended to retain for the jihadis of every hue and nationality the upper hand in Afghanistan, it has been achieved in the backdrop of a nuclear arsenal made possible by generous proliferation of pre-tested warheads and delivery systems from China. One would have thought that Beijing would see the danger in pandering to jihadi sentiments given the unrest in its own Muslim Uighur community in Xiangiang province.

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nuclear world

PrOliferAtiOn

Indo-US deal

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nuclear world

JiHADi AnGle

Pak nukes:
The debate on whether Pakistans nuclear weapons will fall into jihadi / extremist hands is oxymoronic. If it is agreed that the Pakistan Armed Forces were the cradle of jihad against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan then how can the current lot of fundamentalist cut-throats be external to the Pakistani military milieu? Pakistans nuclear arsenal even at this moment is being used to further the jihadi cause in Afghanistan. If it is allowed to succeed there, the prototype would have been established of recessed nukes serving jihadi ambitions.

how safe?

Brig. Gurmeet Kanwal

Indias concerns

Separate storage

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nuclear world

neW stArt

Rajiv Nayan

arms reduction conundrum

Arms reduction is an archane affair. What is actually reduced may never matter because an overkill exists hidden somewhere in the stockpile. It was not for nothing that the Russians bristled at US attempts to plant antiballistic missile (ABM) batteries in Poland and Czech Republic. At the very least it would have facilitated the eastward flow of NATO which appears at this point to have been largely contained. Thus a covert give and take could be facilitated for other geopolitical reasons.

Just Russia-US

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nuclear world

neW stArt

Ratification ICBMs

Republicans view that a myth is being spread that New START will reduce the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads from the levels required under the current Moscow Treaty with Russia by 30 per cent. They say: This is wrong, because while the Moscow Treaty counted real warheads, New START uses an accountable warhead standard that would permit both sides to exceed the Moscow Treaty limits

NPT connection

Numbers game

Trust deficit Ambiguities ABMs

Ambience

New START limits

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nuclear world

DisAster

nuclear world

neW AMity

The disaster
Dominika Cosic
Dr. Sanjeev Bhadauria

The story

Indo-US nuclear deal: harnessing Indian potential

As the breadth of this Special Issue of Defence And Security Alert will illustrate there are widely divergent and fervently-held views about who won and who lost and the ultimate effect on Indias standing as an independent, self-respecting nation-State. That this epochal event has taken place itself indicates that there is nothing forever permanent in international relations. Perceptions change, nations change.

American perception

The lesson

Balanced equation

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nuclear world

neW AMity

nuclear world

DisArMAMent

Dr. Manpreet Sethi

Indias two-track approach

An ardent protagonist of universal nuclear disarmament from the moment of its emergence as an independent nation, India has been forced to nuclearise its arsenal because of neighbourhood developments. But it has used No First Use and Mutual Assured Destruction to keep even the Pakistan / China use of terrorists as proxies to manageable limits. By example it can make No First Use a stepping stone to the eventual goal of universal disarmament and delegitimisation of nuclear weapons.

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nuclear world

stAtus syMBOl

Dr. Arvind Kumar

The framework of Indias nuclear policy has, from the moment of its inception, been universal and complete disarmament. It has seen non-proliferation being reduced to a farce in its own neighbourhood and it has had to reserve options in the supreme national interest. After the signingof the Indo-US deal will non-proliferation of the NPT kind become the be-all and end-all? What of disarmament?

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nuclear world

stAtus syMBOl

nuclear world

eXPOrt MArKet

reactors
Export potential

I n d i a s next nuclear frontier:

Ramtanu Maitra

Pakistani danger

India is on the verge of keeping a tryst with destiny in atomic science. It is a destiny that has been charted with such cogency and accuracy that it would appear to have been drafted but yesterday instead of decades ago. It is the predicted use of thorium as the final feedstock in the nuclear fuel cycle and the creation of advanced heavy water reactors that will be stand-alone systems that can be erected and forgotten for three decades and buried safely thereafter without fear of spillage or leakage of radioactive material.
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nuclear world

eXPOrt MArKet

nuclear world

PAnAceA?

Dr. Anupam Mondal

Etched in peoples psyche are images of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the after-effects of blast, heat and radiation on habitat and humans. So terrible is the effect that it forced sane minds to say Never again! On the other end of the scale (on which India has always placed the greatest emphasis) lie the peaceful uses of the radiation from the split atom. Nuclear Medicine sounds like a contradiction in terms but its effects are as spectacular as its obverse.

nuclear medicine: a boon for humanity

Nuclear imaging

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nuclear world

Dirty BOMB

Dr. Rakesh Kumar Sharma

Delhi experienced what could have been a dirty bomb attack and an orphan device containing a radioactive component was sold to a kabari (junk dealer) and found its way to Mayapuri. All those who handled it suffered radioactive burns and radiation sickness and it took days to clean up the radiation in a crowded commercial district.

large numbers (~1,00,000) of orphaned

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nuclear world

Dirty BOMB

nuclear world

nOn-DiscriMinAtiOn

nuclear

weapons free world?

Dr. Rajendra Prasad

The moment may have come to make the assault to the top of the mountain and achieve universal and complete nuclear disarmament given that the US and Russia have taken additional steps towards arms limitation to 1,500 warheads each. Bringing in the other nuclear weapons States both overt and clandestine ones into the fold through proportional reductions is a scenario worth framing.
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nuclear world

nOn-DiscriMinAtiOn

nuclear world

Pakistan's nuclear complex:

rOGue ActOrs

Aditi Malhotra

Finally the realisation is dawning that the proposition that because Pakistans nuclear arsenal is under the exclusive control of the Pakistan Army it is safe and secure and not likely to fall into terrorist hands is fundamentally flawed. Simple arithmetic will prove that since military dictator Gen. Ziaul Haq introduced the imported Saudi brand of Wahabi Salafi-ism as the credo of the armed forces every soldier from the Chief of Army Staff down to the soldier has been dyed in the deepest shade of Islamic fundamentalism. The recent Rand Corporation study has underscored that the Pakistan Army is using the nuclear arsenal to help jihadi operations against India.

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rOGue ActOrs

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cartoon laugh n relax!

Agrawal utive Officer Mr. Pawan d Chief Exc Magazine an er rt Publish le A d Security Defence an d li Roa 4/19 Asaf A 0002 New Delhi 11 IA D IN

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