Mumbai: Rubbishing doubts on the efficacy of
the hydrogen bomb test in 1998, Atomic Energy Commission
chairman Anil Kakodkar on Thursday said scientists have achieved
success in building deterrence capability of upto 200 kiltons.
"Once again I would like to re-emphasise that the 1998
nuclear tests were fully successful. We had achieved all the
objectives in toto.
"It has given us the capability to build deterrence based
on both fission and thermonuclear weapon systems from modest
to all the way upto 200 kilotons," he said addressing a press
conference here.
Kakodkar, who was Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre in 1998, termed as "unnecessary" the controversy over
the Pokhran-II nuclear tests triggered after claims by a
former DRDO scientist that the hydrogen bomb experiment was a
failure.
R Chidambaram, Chairman of the AEC in 1998 and the
current Principal Scientific Adviser to the Union Government,
made a presentation on the results of the Pokhran-II nuclear
tests.
Former DRDO scientist K Santhanam, who was the DRDO
coordinator for the 1998 tests, had claimed that the
thermonuclear test was much below expectation triggering a
controversy.
Santhanam had also demanded an inquiry by an independent
panel of experts into the test results.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, September 24, 2009, 16:16