Railway Science (Science and Technology – Nuclear Power)

Five - Nuclear tests of advanced weapon designs conducted by India on 11 and 13 May 1998 at the Pokhran range in Rajasthan Desert. On May 11, 1998 India conducted three nuclear bomb test explosions. Two days later, on May 13, two more bombs were tested.
Codenamed Operation Shakti (literally, “strength”), these tests displayed India’s capability to build fission and thermonuclear weapons with yields up to 200 kilotons.

The Kamini reactor was designed and built jointly by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam, India. Apsara is the oldest Nuclear research reactor in India that was built in August 1956. Hanul is a nuclear power plant in South Korea. Dhruva is a nuclear research reactor in India.

Moderator: Substance that is used in a nuclear reactor to slow down the speed of high energy neutrons by a series of successive collisions, produced during the nuclear fission; Made up of materials with light nuclei. Examples: Normal water, Beryllium, Graphite, Heavy water (D₂O).

Pokhran 1 : Codename - Smiling Buddha (India’s first nuclear test performed at Pokhran, Rajasthan). Prime Minister - Indira Gandhi. Pokhran 2 - 11 May 1998, Codename - Operation Shakti, Prime Minister - Atal Bihari Vajpeyee. The five nuclear bomb test explosions were conducted in Pokhran 2.

Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha established the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) in January 1954. In 1966 , AEET was renamed Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). Research Reactors - Apsara, DHRUVA, CIRUS, Zerlina, Purnima I, Purnima II , Purnima III, Apsara U, AHWR-CF.

The Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research (IGCAR) - the second largest establishment of the Department of Atomic Energy next to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Founded - 1971.
Objective - To conduct a broad based multidisciplinary programme of scientific research and advanced Engineering, directed towards the development of sodium cooled Fast Breeder Reactor [FBR] technology, in India.

Also known as “Father of Indian Nuclear Programme”. India's three-stage nuclear power programme (1950): Aim - To secure the country's long term energy independence. First Stage - Natural uranium -fueled Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs). Second Stage - Fast breeder reactors (FBRs) using plutonium -based fuel. Third Stage - Advanced nuclear power systems using thorium.

Kalpakkam nuclear power plant is situated on the Coromandel Coast in Tamil Nadu.

Talcher Super Thermal Power Station - Odisha, Kudankulam Nuclear Power Station - Tamil Nadu, Mundra Thermal Power Station - Gujarat, Sardar Sarovar Power Station - Located in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, NTPC Ramagundam - Located in Telangana.

Homi J Bhabha (Father of Indian Nuclear programme) : He established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Atomic Energy, Trombay (1945). S Chandrasekhar: Received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the physical processes important to the structure and evolution of stars (1983). Vikram Sarabhai (Father of Indian space program) : Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) was renamed after him as Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). SN Bose : His interpretation which is called Bose -Einstein Statistics laid the foundation of quantum statistics.