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1974 NUCLEAR TEST: 'Keeping preparations under wraps was a feat' | idrw.org
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part 1
.
Successfully concealing preparations for the 1974
nuclear test was a significant achievement of
India's scientific establishment. So said Dr Robert
Anderson, visiting Fellow at Cambridge and
Professor of the School of Communication at
Simon Fraser University in Canada.He is the
author of several works about India's nuclear
research, including 'Building scientific institutions:
Meghnad Saha and Homi Bhabha', the more
recently published 'Nucleus and Nation' and the
soon-to-be completed 'Negotiating Nuclear
Power'.
Asked what is new and surprising about a
subject that he has researched for so many
years, he said, "That a significant number of
physicists, technicians and engineers with respect
to the bomb could over three or four years work
together very quietly without producing paper,
without leaking this knowledge very widely.
"So outside the Prime Minister's office"¦very few
persons knew there was going to be a test and
when it would occur. They did create the
conditions and they tested it successfully without
anyone's realisation.
"In India, this is always described as impossible.
It is not me who is saying it, but an Indian self-
definition that they are not a nation very good at
keeping secrets."
Based on his research at the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) archives in Vienna,
Anderson added, "I think we now know a great
deal about the planning and the pressures on the
people who eventually built the tunnels and
designed the devices and the triggers and so on
and who tested the weapon.
"But I'm also working"¦on how the so-called
peaceful nuclear explosion was defined as early as
1968 – although some definitions had been
around much earlier than '68. This was a
definition into which Indian voices could step into.
"Ramanna was there at the meetings around the
peaceful nuclear explosion from 1970. So well
before the test in '74, Indians were present and
engaged in conversations about peaceful nuclear
explosions."
++
part 1
.
Successfully concealing preparations for the 1974
nuclear test was a significant achievement of
India's scientific establishment. So said Dr Robert
Anderson, visiting Fellow at Cambridge and
Professor of the School of Communication at
Simon Fraser University in Canada.He is the
author of several works about India's nuclear
research, including 'Building scientific institutions:
Meghnad Saha and Homi Bhabha', the more
recently published 'Nucleus and Nation' and the
soon-to-be completed 'Negotiating Nuclear
Power'.
Asked what is new and surprising about a
subject that he has researched for so many
years, he said, "That a significant number of
physicists, technicians and engineers with respect
to the bomb could over three or four years work
together very quietly without producing paper,
without leaking this knowledge very widely.
"So outside the Prime Minister's office"¦very few
persons knew there was going to be a test and
when it would occur. They did create the
conditions and they tested it successfully without
anyone's realisation.
"In India, this is always described as impossible.
It is not me who is saying it, but an Indian self-
definition that they are not a nation very good at
keeping secrets."
Based on his research at the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) archives in Vienna,
Anderson added, "I think we now know a great
deal about the planning and the pressures on the
people who eventually built the tunnels and
designed the devices and the triggers and so on
and who tested the weapon.
"But I'm also working"¦on how the so-called
peaceful nuclear explosion was defined as early as
1968 – although some definitions had been
around much earlier than '68. This was a
definition into which Indian voices could step into.
"Ramanna was there at the meetings around the
peaceful nuclear explosion from 1970. So well
before the test in '74, Indians were present and
engaged in conversations about peaceful nuclear
explosions."