Atomic Energy Budget for 2007-2008

PTI FEATURE

SCIENCE BUDGET

PF-43/2007

VOL NO XXIII(11)-2007 DATED MARCH 17, 2007

Atomic Energy Budget For 2007-2008

-By Dr K.S. Parthasarathy

The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram contained notable hikes in the funds allocated to the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). The Finance Minister has set apart Rs 3796.85 crore for the DAE for 2007-08 as against Rs 3173.22 crore last year.

DAE plans to complete an impressive array of projects which include the participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the international projects at European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, setting up of National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) at Bhubaneswar , execution of a few projects by the Board for Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT) and continuation of the development of fast reactor technology at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research among others.

On December 2, 2005, the European Union agreed to include India in the 10 billion euro project to build an experimental fusion reactor at Cadarache in France. The other partners of ITER are China, European Union, Japan, Korea, Russia and USA.

The Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) located at Gandhinagar, the Indian Agency contributing to the project has been carrying out research in basic and applied plasma physics. IPR receives Rs 201.64 crore for 2007-08. This is a significant increase compared to Rs 91.06 crore allotted for the previous year. Of the amount allotted, about Rs 101crore will be for ITER; last year’s revised estimate for ITER was Rs 40 crore.

Fusion technology is complex. When scientists bring together the nuclei of heavy isotopes of hydrogen, they fly apart! To get them behave, we have to heat them to 100 million degrees; then they fuse and produce large amounts of energy. Specialists claim that one kg of fusion fuel would produce the same energy as 10 million kg of fossil fuels (Reuters, December 2, 2005)

We have to operate at least one experimental reactor to see whether it will be useful as a source of energy. Specialists will construct ITER in ten years. The reactor will produce a fusion power of 500 MW for a burn length of 400 seconds.

India will contribute equipment worth 500 million dollars to the experiment and will participate in its subsequent operation and experiments. The equipment will largely be made by Indian industries. Experience gained by Indian scientists and engineers from ITER will be invaluable.

The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) at Bhubaneswar will undertake integrated 5-year Master’s courses in core and emerging branches of science to provide world-class education to students after 10+2 stage. It can also include an integrated MSc-PhD programme after graduate level studies.

“I am confident that the NISER will become a Mecca for science just as the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Indian Institute of Science are today”, Prime Minister declared on August 28,2006 while announcing the setting up of NISER. The budget for 2007-08 has provided Rs 20 crore for NISER.

For 2007-08, the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) receives an allocation of Rs 289.20 crore as against the last year’s revised estimate of about Rs 258 crore

The mood is upbeat in IGCAR and rightly, its website flashes the message “Fast reactors for energy security”.

Apart from augmenting the different facilities, the Centre will intensify the ongoing R&D programmes on Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) and fuel reprocessing materials. The Centre will carry out engineering experiments to qualify component designs and to generate data for validating computer codes, based on scale model/full scale models in sodium and water and validation of innovative design features of future fast breeder reactors.

IGCAR will provide R&D support to develop fabrication routes for mixed oxide as well as metallic fuels for fast reactors; work on metallic fuel will be continued, with appropriate augmentation in the facilities.

The Centre plans to replace the aged mechanical, electrical and Instrumentation& Control (I&C) systems of Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR), the flagship of the centre, which attained criticality in 1985. This will help to operate the reactor for 20 more years.

IGCAR will augment existing capabilities with new techniques/ facilities in the areas of irradiation experiments, post irradiation examination, non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and in-service inspection techniques, remote handling, automation and robotics.

Other fields of interest are nanotechnology with a focus in the area of gas sensors, micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) and hard coatings. IGCAR may develop an array of chemical sensors based on nanomaterials and nanotechnology to detect and monitor simultaneously a group of gases in the fast reactor and reprocessing plant environments.

From the allocation of Rs 71.32 crore, BRIT set apart Rs 21.84 crore for 2007-08. The Board will procure, install and commission a 30 Mev medical cyclotron at Kolkata at a cost of 14.78 crore. It will also commission an integrated facility for radiation technology costing Rs 4.91 crore at its Vashi complex to fabricate and handle cobalt-60 sources of high activity

The Board will augment the existing radioisotope production facilities to meet the demand, to ensure enhanced safety of the products and to promote the application of radioisotopes for the benefit of society. It has plans to develop remotely operated, indigenous, High Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy equipment. Establishing the complete process and facilities to fabricate and supply iridium-192 HDR sources will help in saving foreign exchange and will give a shot in the arm of radiotherapy centres nation wide.

BRIT will start a new automated facility to produce Mo 99 - Tc 99 m column generators, the workhorses in nuclear medicine.

The Budget indicated increases in the allocation for Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, and Institute of Physics.

On August 28, 2006, while announcing the setting up of the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that our expenditure on Science and Technology (S&T) is about 1% of our GDP. He conceded that this is half of what developed countries are devoting to S&T.

He said that we should strive to reach the target of 2% in the 11^th plan. The increased allocation to DAE is hopefully the harbinger for greater governmental support to S&T.

Dr K.S.Parthasarathy is former Secretary AER Board

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