CLASS
Nuclear Policy of India
▪ The discovery of nuclear fission began with the
discovery of the neutron in 1932 by James
Chadwick in England.
▪ Nuclear fission of heavy elements was discovered in
1938 by German Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann.
▪ J. Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical
physicist. During the Manhattan Project,
About Nuclear Oppenheimer was director of the Los Alamos
Technology Laboratory and responsible for the research and design
of an atomic bomb. He is often known as the “father of
the atomic bomb.”
▪ July 16, 1945, when a plutonium implosion device was
tested at a site located 210 miles south of Los Alamos,
New Mexico, on the barren plains of the Alamogordo
Bombing Range, known as the Jornada del Muerto.
▪ Started in March 1944 when Dr. Homi Bhabha started
Institute of Fundamental Research
▪ .Nehru’s stand on Nuclear Policy
India’s Program ▪ Establishment of BARC(1954) and first reactor of India
▪ China in war of 1962
▪ China conducted the nuclear tests in October 1964
▪ The five nuclear powers (US, USSR, UK, France, and
China) also the five Permanent Members of the UN
Need Security Council had tried to impose the Nuclear Non-
proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 on the rest of the
world.
Non
Proliferation
Treaty(NPT)
▪ Signed 1968 in force 1970
▪ Three main objectives of the treaty are
• non-proliferation,
NPT • disarmament, and
• the right to peacefully use nuclear technology.
▪ Pakistan, Israel, North Korea, and South Sudan.
▪ Discriminatory
NPT ▪ Selectively applicable
▪ Monopoly of the five nuclear weapons powers.
Operation
Smiling Buddha
▪ In 18 May 1974,Pokhran-I, dubbed as a “peaceful
nuclear explosion”.
▪ A team of 75 scientists and engineers, led by Raja
Ramanna worked from 1967 to 1974.
▪ Sanctions.
▪ The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) came in existence
▪ Everywhere, by everyone. It opened for signature on 24
September 1996.
▪ When the Treaty enters into force it provides a legally
CTBT binding norm against nuclear testing.
▪ India’s principled opposition.
Operation
Shakti
Shakti 1 – 5
11 and 13 May
▪ If India signed on to CTBT, it would mean closing our
nuclear option forever.
▪ In 1995, the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao
decided to conduct further tests.
▪ However, India was pressured by the US not to do so,
when American satellites got wind of the impending
tests in India.
Nuclear ➢Brajesh Mishra drafted
Doctrine Nuclear Doctrine of India
Nuclear
Doctrine
After attack
▪ 'No First Use’
▪ Credible minimum deterrent.
▪ Only "in retaliation against a nuclear attack on Indian
Nuclear territory or on Indian forces anywhere".
Doctrine ▪ Nuclear retaliation to a first strike will be "massive" and
designed to inflict "unacceptable damage".
▪ Non nuclear weapon states.
▪ Biological or chemical weapons.
▪ Authorized only by civilian political leadership through
the Nuclear Command Authority.
▪ Commitment to goal of nuclear weapon free world,
through global, verifiable and non discriminatory
disarmament.
▪ Aim to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons by
curbing the export of nuclear weapons development
materials and related technology.
▪ The main reason for this is said to be that India is not a
party to the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons. It was in May 2016 that India
formally applied for the NSG membership but was
denied the membership as a joint decision by the other
NSG countries
▪ Access to foreign-sourced nuclear material and
equipment
▪ Opportunity to initiate talks about the plutonium trade
for its thorium program and gain massive domestic
profits.
▪ It was established in April 1987 by G-7 countries –
USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, and
Japan, to check the spread of unmanned delivery
systems capable of carrying nuclear weapons of above
500kg for more than 300km. In 1992, it was extended
for all types of weapons of mass destruction.
MTCR(2016) ▪ The International Code of Conduct against Ballistic
Missile Proliferation”, also known as the Hague Code of
Conduct (HCOC), which was established on 25
November 2002 as an arrangement to prevent the
proliferation of ballistic missiles with 136 UN member
countries including India.
▪ The Wassenaar Arrangement is a voluntary export
control regime. The Arrangement, formally established
in July 1996, has 42 members who exchange
information on transfers of conventional weapons and
Wassenaar dual-use goods and technologies.
Arrangement
▪ Dual-use refers to the ability of a good or technology
(2017) to be used for multiple purposes - usually peaceful and
military.
▪ The Australia Group (AG) is an informal forum of
countries which, through the harmonisation of export
controls, seeks to ensure that exports do not
contribute to the development of chemical or
biological weapons.
Australia ▪ The formation of the Australia Group (AG) in 1985 was
group(2018) prompted by Iraq’s use of chemical weapons during
the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)
▪ Argonne National Laboratory was the first nuclear
reactor to produce electricity, it was located in Idaho,
USA. It was in the year [Link] lab
World Nuclear ▪ It was set up in Obninsk, Russia in [Link] community
▪ In this direction three-stage nuclear power
programme was formulated by Homi Bhabha in the
1950s.
▪ Atomic Energy Act, 1962 was framed and
implemented with the set objectives of using two
India’s Nuclear naturally occurring elements Uranium and Thorium
Energy Program having good potential to be utilized as nuclear fuel in
Indian Nuclear Power Reactors.
▪ The estimated natural deposits of Uranium are about
70,000 tonnes and Thorium are about 3, 60,000
tonnes in the country.
Three Stage
programme
▪ In the first stage of the programme,
Stage I – natural uranium fuelled pressurized heavy water
reactors (PHWR) produce electricity while
Pressurized Heavy generating plutonium-239 as by-product.
Water Reactor ▪ [U-238 → Plutonium-239 + Heat]
▪ The second stage involves using plutonium-239 to
produce fuel, which would be used in Fast Breeder
Reactors.
▪ In FBRs, plutonium-239 undergoes fission to
produce energy, while the uranium-238 present in
Stage 2- Fast the fuel transmutes to additional plutonium-239.
breeder reactor ▪ The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is a 500
MWe fast breeder nuclear reactor presently being
(FBR) constructed at the Madras Atomic Power Station in
Kalpakkam, India.
▪ Third phase of India’s Nuclear Power Generation
Stage III – Thorium programme is, breeder reactors using U-233 fuel.
Based ▪ India’s vast thorium deposits permit design and
Reactors(AHWR) operation of U-233 fuelled breeder reactors.
▪ In the first stage, heavy water reactors fuelled by natural
uranium would produce plutonium [U-238 will be
transmuted to Plutonium 239 in PHWR];
▪ The second stage would initially be fuelled by a mix of the
plutonium from the first stage and natural uranium. This
uranium would transmute into more plutonium and once
sufficient stocks have been built up, thorium would be
introduced into the fuel cycle to convert it into uranium
233 for the third stage [thorium will be transmuted to U-
233 with the help plutonium 239].
Overview ▪ In the final stage, a mix of thorium and uranium fuels the
reactors. The thorium transmutes to U-233 which powers
the reactor. Fresh thorium can replace the depleted
thorium [can be totally done away with uranium which is
very scares in India] in the reactor core, making
it essentially a thorium-fuelled reactor [thorium keeps
transmuting into U-233. It is U-233 that generates the
energy].
▪ Presently, India has 22 operating nuclear power reactors, with an installed capacity of 6780 MegaWatt
electric (MWe).
Power Plants
&
Uranium
• In December, 2021, the Government of India informed
Parliament about building ten indigenous PHWR’s to
Nuclear be set up in fleet mode and had granted “in principle
Energy in India approval” for 28 additional reactors, including 24 to
be imported from France, the U.S. and Russia.
• Recently, the Centre has given in-principle (first step )
approval for setting up of 6 nuclear power reactor at
Jaitapur.
✓ Jaitapur would be the world’s most powerful
nuclear power plant.
✓ There would be six state-of-the-art Evolutionary
Power Reactors (EPRs) with an installed capacity
INDIA-FRANCE of 9.6 GWe that will produce low carbon electricity.
✓ The six nuclear power reactors, which will have a
capacity of 1,650 MW each, will be set up
with technical cooperation from France.
✓ The experimental thorium plant ”Kamini"
already exists in Kalpakkam.
✓ The world's first thorium-based nuclear
plant, "Bhavni," using Uranium-233, is being set
MADE IN INDIA up at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu.
✓ This plant will be entirely indigenous and will be
the first of its kind.
Power Sector
of
India
• The CLNDA was adopted in 2010.
• It is based on the international principles of civil
nuclear liability laid down in the Vienna
Convention, Paris Convention, and Brussels
Civil Liability Supplementary Convention.
for Nuclear • The CLNDA provides for strict and no-fault liability
Damages Act on the operator of the nuclear plant, where it will
be held liable for damage regardless of any fault on
its part.
• This Act establishes the operator’s liability for nuclear
catastrophes up to 1,500 crore, which requires
insurance or financial security.
• The Act has limited the government liability amount
to the rupee equivalent of 300 million Special Drawing
Civil Liability Rights (SDRs) or about ₹2,100 to ₹2,300 crore.
for Nuclear • In addition to establishing a timeline for compensation
claims, the act authorises the Atomic Energy
Damages Act Regulatory Board to report incidents within 15
days.
• In addition, the act establishes a Nuclear Damage
Claims Commission to facilitate equitable
compensation and conflict resolution.
Right to Recourse Against Suppliers
▪ Section 17(b) of the Act allows operators to seek
compensation from suppliers if the nuclear incident
is caused by defective equipment or faulty material.
▪ This provision is unique to India, as most international
liability regimes (such as the Convention on
Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage
– CSC) do not hold suppliers liable beyond their
contractual obligations.
▪ It mandates the creation of a Nuclear Liability Fund,
where operators contribute to a pool that can be used
in case of accidents.
• The amendment aims to address supplier liability
concerns, aligning India’s legal framework
with international nuclear agreements.
• Starting of Stalled Projects: The changes are expected to
revive long-pending nuclear power projects, including:
About the • EDF’s Jaitapur Nuclear
Six EPR1650 reactors.
Project (Maharashtra) –
Proposed • Westinghouse’s Kovvada Project (Andhra Pradesh) –
Amendment Six AP1000 reactors.
• Promoting of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs):₹20,000
crore has been allocated for the establishment of five
SMRs by 2033.
• India’s Nuclear Energy Expansion Goals: India aims
to increase nuclear energy capacity to 100 GW by 2047,
up from the current 6,780 MW from 22 reactors.