Bhabha’s dream comes true

This article reminds the reader of the early years of atomic energy in India. Dr Bhabha wanted that the Government should use tyhe then available fairly inexpensive electric power to produce heavy water. He wanted the company producing heavy water should be under the Defence Ministry, The produce should be left to the Atomic Energy commission for its own use or sale. It took several years to fulfill Bhabha's dream.The Heavy Water Board, the agency producing heavy water lives up to the expectations of Dr.Bhabha.

K.S.Parthasarathy



SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY
Friday,February 1,2008,Chandigarh,India
Bhabha’s dream comes true
K.S. Parthasarathy
Scientists and engineers in the Heavy Water Board (HWB), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) have every reason to be proud. They fulfilled the dreams of Dr Homi Bhabha whose death anniversary was on January 24. The Board exported heavy water to South Korea seven times and once to China.
Last year, HWB supplied 4,400 kg of high quality, nuclear grade heavy water to Spectra Gases Inc. USA. HWB is emerging as a major exporter of this commercially important strategic material. A peep into history is in order.
In a note on the organisation of atomic energy research in India, sent to Jawaharlal Nehru on April 26, 1948, Dr Homi Bhabha wanted that the government “should explore immediately the possibility of utilising the cheap hydroelectric power in India for manufacturing heavy water on the one hand to our own requirements in a pile and on the other for sale to other countries”.
He desired that the government should come to an agreement with the Governments or atomic energy agencies of one or more countries such as Great Britain, France and Norway. “…that was the quickest and the most desirable way to develop atomic energy in India” he argued
Why did he bracket Norway with France and Great Britain? He knew that Norway had the knowhow to produce heavy water, an essential raw material to produce atomic energy. In 1942, Norway was producing 1.5 tons of heavy water annually at its Rjukan plant. (Smart Norwegian saboteurs damaged the plant in 1943;They did not want Germans to get any advantage. The old hydro power station and plant have been preserved as the monument of Norway’s heavy water industry.)
The “factory should be set up for the purpose under the Defence Ministry and put under the same security measures as the armaments factories of that Ministry”. Bhabha drove home the strategic importance of heavy water.
He wanted that “the heavy water produced should be at the disposal of the Atomic Energy Commission for use or sale”. Bhabha wanted to thwart a possible future turf war with the army!
At the second meeting of the Board of Research on Atomic Energy held in Bombay on 9th and 10th April 1948, Bhabha secured approval for three resolutions; one of which recommended that the government should investigate the feasibility of producing heavy water in India.
In the note enclosing the resolutions, Bhabha proposed to Nehru the setting up of a three Member Atomic Energy Commission directly under the Prime Minister as “the present Board……..cannot be entrusted with this work since it is an advisory body…….composed of 28 members including officials, scientists and industrialists”. “Secret matters cannot be dealt with under this organisation”, Bhabha asserted.
In 1954, Dr Bhabha convinced Nehru about setting up a fertiliser cum heavy water plant at Nangal. He argued that cheap electric power (1.35 paisa per kilowatt-hr, revised later to 6 paisa per kilowatt-hr!) will be available from the Bhakra-Nangal Hydel Project. Nangal plant produced the first drop of heavy water on August 9, 1962. Nangal plant was the largest plant of this type in the world.
Bhabha waited for over 14 years (from April 1948 to August 1962) to realise his dream to produce heavy water indigenously. The Heavy Water Board executed the first export order to South Korea in May 1998, just under 36 years later.
If Dr Bhabha were alive today, he would have congratulated the board for its achievements. He might have also expressed his dissatisfaction, as it took too long to fulfill his dream.
HWB faced many trials and tribulations (the difficulties in operating heavy water plants with fertiliser factories, power scarcity, export controls, poor national industrial infrastructure among others) in mastering a technology known only to a handful of advanced countries.
HWS has an impressive list of achievements, including energy conservation measures, maintenance of high capacity factors for the plants and product diversification among others.
The board kept the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited in good humour by supplying heavy water to the pressurised heavy water reactors in the country.
Overall, the board lives up to the expectations of Dr Bhabha,the architect of nuclear India.
Dr K.S.Parthasarathy is former Secretary, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.