1998 nuke test was 100 per cent success: Kakodkar

Tuticorin (TN), Nov 28 (PTI) India's Atomic Energy
Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar has said India's 1998
nuclear test was a 'hundred per cent success'.
"I assure (you) that the nuclear test conducted in 1998
was hundred per cent success. The yield of the test was
verified using various alternative methods and it was
perfect," he told reporters after inaugurating the Zirconium
complex at Pazhayakal in south India on Friday.
Kakodakar's remarks came in response to a question about
the controversy surrounding the 1998 Pokhran nuclear test
after some top nuclear scientists raised doubts about the
success of the explosion.
He also expressed satisfaction over the progress made in
the Indo-US nuclear agreement.
The country's second Zirconium plant here, the first being
at Hyderabad in south India, has a capacity to produce 500
tonnes of Zirconium Oxide and 250 tonnes of Zirconium Sponge
per annum, which are used for manufacturing Zirconium alloy
components required for nuclear power reactors.
The Rs 304 crore 'critical facility' plant had been built
with a capacity to increase its production to 1000 tonnes of
Zirconium Oxide. It was originally conceived to accommodate
Titanium Sponge plant also, but it was shifted to Kerala.
Kakodar said only a few countries had the capacity to
produce Zirconium sponge and export potential for the product
was immense.
The plant has state-of-the-art material handling facility
and automation at various intricate process system was the
major advantage, he said. PTI CORR
MYR