New Delhi: A former senior DRDO scientist's
contention that the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests had not met the
desired objective today did not receive much attention from
the government which appeared to be dismissive of it.
"Somebody has made a statement. I was puzzled by the
statement. If you are not puzzled, you are a genius," Home
Minister P Chidambaram told reporters when asked to comment on
the claim made by K Santhanam, who had been involved in the
Pokhran-II tests.
"The government will find out (the veracity of
Santhanam's statement)," he said indicating he found little
merit in the scientist's claim.
Santhanam has said that the thermonuclear or hydrogen
bomb in May 1998 was of low yield and not the one that would
meet the country's strategic objectives. He said India needed
to conduct more atomic tests and should not sign CTBT.
The scientist's version was contested by Brajesh
Mishra, National Security Advisor in the Vajpayee government,
who said R Chidambaram, then chief of the Department of Atomic
Enerygy, had reported to him on May 13 that year that all
parameters had been met in the five tests carried out and
there was no need to undertake a sixth one.
"It was clear to us that the thermonuclear as also the
nuclear tests have been successful," Mishra said.
Chidambaram said the scientists at Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre had done a lot of measurements on site during the
Pokhran-II experiments.
"They had analysed global seismic data and examined the
radioactivity in the samples recovered post-shot from near the
emplacement points of the nuclear devices," he said.
Emplacement point is the exact spot where the nuclear
device is placed in the shaft underground and is covered by
rocks to prevent radioactivity from escaping into the
atmosphere.
Six months after the nuclear tests, scientists had dug
out the rocks from the emplacement points and found that they
had signatures of neutron-induced radioactivity, Chidambaram
said.
"They (rocks from emplacement points) have signatures of
neutron induced radioactivity which can come only if the 14
MeV neutrons have been generated, which means that the
thermonuclear explosive device (hydrogen bomb in common
parlance) had worked," the scientist explained.
"The total yield comes out as 50 (+/- 10) kilotons for
the thermonuclear device, consistent with the design yield and
with the seismic estimate of the total yield," he said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, August 28, 2009, 00:45