Operation Smiling Buddha was the assigned code name of India's first successful nuclear bomb test on 18 May 1974. The bomb was detonated on the army base Pokhran Test Range (PTR),in Rajasthan,by the Indian Army under the supervision of several key Indian generals.
India possesses nuclear weapons and previously developed chemical weapons. Although India has not released any official statements about the size of its nuclear arsenal,recent estimates suggest that India has 170 nuclear weapons and has produced enough weapons-grade plutonium for up to 200 nuclear weapons. In 1999,India was estimated to have 800 kilograms (1,800 lb) of separated reactor-grade plutonium,with a total amount of 8,300 kilograms (18,300 lb) of civilian plutonium,enough for approximately 1,000 nuclear weapons. India has conducted nuclear weapons tests in a pair of series namely Pokhran I and Pokhran II.
Raja Ramanna was an Indian physicist who is best known for his role in India's nuclear program during its early stages.
Homi Jehangir Bhabha,FNI,FASc,FRS(30 October 1909 to 24 January 1966) was an Indian nuclear physicist who is widely credited as the "father of the Indian nuclear programme". He was the founding director and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR),as well as the founding director of the Atomic Energy Establishment,Trombay (AEET) which was renamed the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour. TIFR and AEET served as the cornerstone to the Indian nuclear energy and weapons programme. He was the first chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission and secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy. By supporting space science projects which initially derived their funding from the AEC,he played an important role in the birth of the Indian space programme.
Anil Kakodkar,is an Indian nuclear physicist and mechanical engineer. He was the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and the Secretary to the Government of India,he was the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,Trombay from 1996 to 2000. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan,India's second highest civilian honour,on 26 January 2009.
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's premier nuclear research facility,headquartered in Trombay,Mumbai,Maharashtra,India. It was founded by Homi Jehangir Bhabha as the Atomic Energy Establishment,Trombay (AEET) in January 1954 as a multidisciplinary research program essential for India's nuclear program. It operates under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE),which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India.
The Pokhran-II tests were a series of five nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by India at the Indian Army's Pokhran Test Range in May 1998. It was the second instance of nuclear testing conducted by India;the first test,code-named Smiling Buddha,was conducted in May 1974.
Ravi B. Grover is an Indian nuclear scientist and a mechanical engineer. He is the founding vice-chancellor of the Homi Bhabha National Institute,a member of the Atomic Energy Commission,chairman of the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences,a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering,and World Academy of Art and Science. He was the president of the Indian Society of Heat and Mass Transfer for the period 2010–2013. He has been awarded Padma Shri by the Government of India in the year 2014.
The Atomic Energy Commission of India is the governing body of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE),Government of India. The DAE is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister.
Padmanabhan Krishnagopala Iyengar,was an Indian nuclear physicist who is widely known for his central role in the development of the nuclear program of India. Iyengar previously served as the director of BARC and former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India,he raised his voice and opposition against the nuclear agreement between India and the United States and expressed that the deal favoured the United States.
Shivram Baburao Bhoje is a distinguished Indian nuclear scientist who worked in the field of fast-breeder nuclear reactor technology for forty years in the design,construction,operation,and research and development. Indian government has honoured him with Padma Shri in 2003,the fourth highest civilian award in India,for his distinguished service to science and engineering fields.
Ratan Kumar Sinha, is an Indian nuclear scientist and mechanical engineer. He had served as the Secretary to the Government of India,Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC),Government of India from April 2012 to October 2015. Prior to that,Ratan Kumar Sinha had served as Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC),Mumbai from May 2010 to June 2012. During the four decades of his career,Ratan Kumar Sinha held several important positions related to design &development of nuclear reactors for the Indian nuclear programme. He has been actively involved in the development of the advanced heavy water reactor (AHWR) and Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR),two of the highly acknowledged technological innovations which are suitable for large scale deployment of nuclear power,particularly in India.
Sekhar Basu was an Indian nuclear scientist who served as the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary to the Government of India,Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). He also served as the Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC),the Project Director of Nuclear Submarine Program,and later as the Chief Executive of the Nuclear Recycle Board at Bhabha Atomic Research Center. He was a recipient of India's fourth highest civilian honor Padma Shri in 2014.
Chaitanyamoy Ganguly is an Indian nuclear scientist and a former head of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Materials Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),credited with many innovations in the field of nuclear material science. He was honored by the government of India in 2002,with the fourth-highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.
Valangiman Subramanian Ramamurthy is an Indian nuclear physicist with a broad range of contributions from basic research to Science and Engineering administration.Prof.Ramamurthy started his career in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,Mumbai in the year 1963. He made important research contributions in the area of nuclear fission,medium energy heavy ion reactions,statistical and thermodynamic properties of nuclei and low energy accelerator applications. During the period 1995-2006,Prof.Ramamurthy was fully involved in Science administration as Secretary to Government of India,Department of Science and Technology,(DST),New Delhi.Other important assignments held by him include Director,Institute of Physics,Bhubaneswar,(1989-1995),DAE Homi Bhabha Chair in the Inter-University Accelerator Centre,New Delhi (2006-2010),and Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies,Bengaluru (2009-2014). He is a former chairman of the Recruitment and Assessment Board of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and has served as a member of the design team of the first Indian nuclear experiment in Pokhran on 18 May 1974. The Government of India awarded him the third highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Bhushan in 2005.
Satinder Kumar Sikka was an Indian nuclear condensed matter physicist,crystallographer and a former Scientific Secretary to the Principal Scientific Advisor of the Government of India. He was known to have played a crucial role,along with Raja Ramanna,Rajagopala Chidambaram and Basanti Dulal Nagchaudhuri,in the design and development of a Hydrogen Bomb by India,which was tested at the Pokhran Test Range in May 1998,under the code name,Operation Shakthi. He was also involved in the Smiling Buddha tests,conducted in 1974. He was awarded the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri,by the Government of India,in 1999.
Mallasamudram Subramanyam Ramakumar was an Indian mechanical engineer,scientist and roboticist,known for developing robotic and automation technologies for Indian nuclear and defence purposes. He was the director of Nuclear Fuels,Automation and Manufacturing Group of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC),Trombay. He was the first Head of Division of Remote Handling of Robotics (DRHR) at the organization. He pioneered robotic technology in India. Ramakumar was one of the key persons behind the Pokhran-II test,conducted by India in 1998. It was his team,which developed the online fuelling and coolant channel inspection systems for the power reactors for the 1998 tests.
Krishna Balaji Sainis is an Indian immunologist. He is a former senior professor of Life Sciences at Homi Bhabha National Institute and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences,India. Since 1999,he has served as the Indian representative on the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research,awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for his contributions to medical sciences in 1994.
Shyam Sunder Kapoor is an Indian nuclear physicist and a former director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Known for his research on fission and heavy-ion physics,Kapoor is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies –Indian Academy of Sciences,Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Sciences,India –as well as the Institute of Physics. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research,awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology,one of the highest Indian science awards,for his contributions to Physical Sciences in 1983.
Vasudeva Kilara Iya is an Indian nuclear scientist and the First Head of the radioisotope and radiation technology programme of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and a former Group Director at BARC (1974–1987).
