India has ‘comprehensive’ simulation capability: AEC chief
02 Sep 2009
Stressing that the country has ''comprehensive'' simulation capability, Atomic Energy commission chief Dr Anil Kakodkar said Wednesday that the country did not require additional nuclear tests. Dr Kakodkar was joining issue with a small band of ex-nuclear and defence scientists who have recently questioned the success of the thermonuclear device tested on 11 May 1998 at Pokharan.
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This has been hotly contested by other scientists, including Dr Kakodkar, who was himself part of the 11 May 'Buddha Smiles' tests.
"We have enough data. We have comprehensive simulation capability and therefore there is no need for any more tests," Dr Kakodkar said. "We are very confident about the simulation capability."
The recent controversy was ignited by ex-DRDO scientist K Santhanam, who was intimately involved with the tests. He claimed that as far as the thermonuclear device was concerned it was a 'fizzle,' which in nuclear parlance denotes a failure.
"We used the data of 'Baneberry' nuclear tests of US of 18 December1970 to validate our 3-D simulation for earth motion and displacement and this validated tool was used for bench marking," Dr Kakodkar said.