Stalwart of India’s nuclear programme, Homi N Sethna, passes away
06 Sep 2010
Mumbai: Former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman and the architect of India's first 'Smiling Buddha' nuclear test, Dr Homi Nusserwanji Sethna, passed away at his Malabar Hills residence here after a prolonged illness, family members said.
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| December 1974: Prime minister Indira Gandhi visits Pokhran where India's first nuclear explosion took place in May 1974. She is flanked by KC Pant (left) and Atomic Energy Commission chairman HN Sethna (right). |
He was 86 and is survived by a daughter and son.
Sethna passed away on Sunday night at around 11.15pm. His funeral will take place on Tuesday at the Doongerwadi Tower of Silence.
Dr Homi Nusserwanji Sethna, to give him his full name, was a nuclear scientist and a chemical engineer who was the primary and central figure in India's civilian nuclear programme.
"Sethna was a good and energetic engineer, always willing to take risks and built India's first re-processing plant in Trombay. He had a dare devil attitude and never waited for bureaucratic processes to get the establishment work done," PK Iyengar, former AEC chairman, said.
Dr. Sethna began his career in the year 1947 as a trainee with ICI, Manchester under the Tata - ICI Scheme. In 1949, he joined Indian Rare Earths Ltd, where he was given the full technical responsibility for setting the Rare Earths Plant at Alwaye in Kerala which marked the beginning of exploitation of nuclear material in India.
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