Omerta Code

"A group under Chidambaram worked on the calculations in great detail and was certain of the experiment going off smoothly."—Dr Raja Ramanna

POKHRAN ’98? No, Pokhran ’74. Ramanna writes these lines in his autobiography Years of Pilgrimage. And, as the world’s 2,048th nuclear test at 3.47.07 pm on May 11, slips into history, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chief’s name is the only one connecting India’s two big bangs with the first one 24 years ago.

That is, apart from Anil Kakodkar. While Rajagopalan Chidambaram, an internationally noted crystallographer, was in the thick of things then, Kakodkar was the youngest member in the Peaceful Nuclear Experiment. Now, as director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), it’s Kakodkar’s turn to bask in the sun.

"The fact that there were just two persons from the ’74 team in ’98, and we still managed to carry if off means there’s a core of really capable, motivated youngsters capable of shouldering the burden," says Business India science writer R. Ramachandran.

Kakodkar last year become the first Indian to receive the Rockwell medal for excellence in technology. He was also recently inducted into the World Hall of Fame for engineering, science and technology. And has made significant contributions in the analysis of the Tarapur reactor core shroud, recommissioning of the Kalpakkam reactor and in the development of thorium technology.

For the moment—and for good reason—though, the public face of The Defiant Triumph is of Chidambaram, ‘and’ Avul Pakir Jainulabedeen Abdul Kalam, the boss of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It was they who called on A.B. Vajpayee the day after to the pop of flashbulbs.

But it takes more than three to bang-o. In fact, when the prime minister said, "I warmly congratulate the scientists and engineers who have carried out these successful tests," it was a fairly accurate summation. Most of those responsible for this ‘Moment of Pride’ are famously faceless.

"In 1974, just about 20 people knew the secret. This time, the number could be even less," says former AEC chairman P.K. Iyengar, adding that India very nearly went nuclear in 1982 before Indira Gandhi baulked at the caution of her advisors. "Secrecy is critical to a mission of such wide ramifications."

Newspaper reports said some of the scientists even travelled under assumed names to different cities, and then proceeded to Pokhran. But Chidamabaram’s Delhi trips were often conspicuous. At Bombay airport, aides ensured that he boarded the aircraft without the hassles of a security check!

Mark Hibbs, the highly respected correspondent of Nucleonics Week, told Outlook: "The South African N-project involved hundreds. But Ramanna told me on the evening of the tests that a small, compartmentalised team was in place. And that most of them were still at the site."

Some with science expertise, some with military expertise. Most not knowing what the others were up to; some not even knowing that they were all in it together. Diagnostic experts, physicists, electrical and electronics engineers, timing experts, physical chemists, detonation experts.

The one big difference, though, between ’74 and ’98 is the degree of involvement of DRDO. "That DRDO played an important role in the entire operation indicates that its logistics are now much better than they were in 1974," says Iyengar. "More modern command and control systems would have been used, consistent with DRDO’s participation. It is likely that compatibility with missile-carrying capability had been built into the designs."

However, Business India’s R. Ramachandran, who has keenly followed the guarded manner in which the atomic energy establishment operates, says: "Even Kalam’s involvement is likely to be limited to the extent of asking DRDO’s affiliates to go along with AEC." Clearly, till weaponisation happens, AEC will continue to be the senior partner. For instance, given the weapons-angle to the tests, experts agree that the DRDO’s Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL) in Chandigarh would have been involved to a great extent. "If the intention is to weaponise, TBRL must have made the casing," adds Ramachandran.

Those in the know say DRDO’s role in the tests means the involvement of its director Prahlad; Agni project director R.N. Agarwal; former technology advisor to Kalam, K. Santhanam; and DRDL engineering R&D head, S.K. Roy. Similarly, the AEC’s role means Y.S.R.Prasad, executive director, the Nuclear Power Corporation; S.K. Sikka, associate director, BARC’s solid state spectroscopy group; A.K. Anand, director, its reactor project group; and Rama Rao, former department of science and technology, are presumed involved.

Iyengar admits that "indigenously enriched uranium" was used in the two low-yield devices. So speculation is rife that the material could have been sourced from the Rare Materials Plant in Mysore where BARC’s uranium enrichment plant is located. Other reports suggest that the uranium may have come from the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) project in Kalpakkam.

But Mark Hibbs believes much of the fissile material could have come from BARC in Trombay. "A.N. Prasad whom Kakodkar replaced as BARC director is a very very important person," says Hibbs. "He’s been the top person for plutonium production for many, many years. But I’m not very sure of the degree of involvement of Placid Rodrigues, director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam."

Sources say the fissile material used in the tests came from IGCAR’s 40 MW-FBTR. Thorium mined and processed into thorium pins by Indian Rare Earths located at Aluva, Kerala were transmuted to Uranium-233 at the FBTR under the direct supervision of Rodrigues.

One senior scientist compares the preparations for the tests to a wedding: "Different requirements are sourced from different people in different places. Only a few key people know what it’s all about." But on hindsight, there were a few pointers in the past year:

Ramanna, former minister in the V.P. Singh team, is seen by strategic affairs analyst Praful Bidwai to share the BJP’s political views. He almost contested the ’96 general elections on a Pavitra Hindu Kazhagam ticket: the still-born party floated by Ram Jethmalani, now a BJP minister. To this day, Ramanna says that he too was taken unawares by the news, but when his wife gave him a "as-if-you-didn’t-know" look in the presence of the press, Ramanna shooed her away. Then opened a bottle of wine to celebrate Buddha’s smile.

Says Ramanna: "I take objection to Buddha’s name being brought in. It’s not the correct statement. It was the idea of P.N. Dhar, then the PM’s principal secretary, and H.N. Set-hna, then AEC chief, to send the coded message: ‘Buddha is smiling.’ Left to me, I’d have said ‘the deer in the desert are beautiful’."

 Success notwithstanding, the secrecy continues. Sources at Pune-based C-DAC, which built the PARAM supercomputer after the US backtracked—fearing its misuse by India for nuclear purposes—say BARC may use its own supercomputer, the recently-upgraded ANURAG 30GF system, to process data from the tests. Still, the Indian atomic energy establishment’s much-derided weaknesses—an impenetrable veil of secrecy and a lack of transparency—have suddenly become its great strengths. Generation of electricity, its objective, has suddenly taken a backseat as its cash-strapped scientists enjoy a fresh lease of life.