Month: November 2017

Shri B. Bhattacharjee took over as Director, on April 3, 2001. Earlier, he was Project Director, Rare Materials Project, Mysore, and Director, Chemical Engineering and Technology Group, BARC. He was a key person in the building of the Uranium Corporation of India Limited, Jaduguda, Bihar, which supplies the entire uranium needed for India’s nuclear electricity programme. Later, Bhattacharjee switched over to multidisciplinary R & D activities at BARC, Mumbai, for the development of High Speed Rotor (HSR) needed for producing enriched uranium and other strategic materials. The successful commissioning of HSR technology in India has put the country among a select band and enabled production of some materials of “strategic importance”. Bhattacharjee played a key role in two other projects: desalination plant coupled to a nuclear electricity station and the Special Materials Project. BARC has already supplied 15 desalination plants to different States. A massive desalination plant, adjacent to the Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam (NDDP), was also constructed under his guidance.

Dr. A. N. Prasad, is a distinguished nuclear scientist and an international authority on the issue of Safeguards. He earned his Masters degrees in nuclear power engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, did his advanced nuclear science and technology from Bombay and nuclear chemical engineering from Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology, USA.  He played a key role in the setting up of India’s first fuel reprocessing plant at Trombay in 1964 to separate plutonium. With this, India became only the fifth country in the world to develop this technology, the others being USA, the then USSR, the UK and France. During his long tenure in the nuclear establishment he continued to work on high technology areas of relevance to the nuclear fuel cycle, particularly specializing in what is called the ‘back end of the fuel cycle’. He was also chairman of the safeguards committee of the Department of Atomic Energy for a number of years. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the development of nuclear technology in India, he was appointed director of BARC and member, Indian Atomic Energy Commission, in May 1993.

Director BARC (1993 – 1996)

 

Mr. K.N. Vyas is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from MS University, Vadodara.  After completion of the training in the 22nd Batch of the BARC Training School in 1979, he joined Fuel Design & Development Section of Reactor Engineering Division of BARC. Mr. Vyas has worked for design & analysis of nuclear reactor fuels.  He was also responsible for design & development of a novel fuel for strategic applications.  He has worked extensively in thermal hydraulics and stress analysis of critical reactor core components.  Mr. Vyas, as an engineer, has played a key role for completion of strategic projects.  Mr. Vyas has also participated in design & analysis of the Test Blanket Module planned to be installed in ITER, France.

Shri Vyas has been conferred several awards, which include Indian Nuclear Society Outstanding Service Award 2011, Homi Bhabha Science and Technology Award 2006, DAE Awards in the years 2007, 2008, 2012 and 2013. He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineers.

Sekhar Basu is a well known nuclear scientist. He had served as the Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), October 23, 2015 to September 17, 2018. Prior to his assumption of charge as Secretary, DAE, he has served as the Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), India’s premier multi-disciplinary R&D centre. He has also worked as the Project Director of Nuclear Submarine Programme and later as the Chief Executive of the Nuclear Recycle Board in the same institute.

Director BARC (June 19, 2012 – February, 2016)
Chairman AEC & Secretary DAE (October 23, 2015 – September 17, 2018)

Ratan Kumar Sinha is an Indian nuclear scientist and mechanical engineer. He had served as the Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy(DAE) and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission(AEC), Government of India from April 2012 to October 2015. Prior to that, Ratan Kumar Sinha had served as Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai from May 2010 to June 2012.^[2]During his four decades of illustrious career, Ratan Kumar Sinha held several important positions related to design & development of nuclear reactors for the Indian nuclear programme. He has been actively involved in the development of Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) and Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR), two of the highly acknowledged technological innovations which are suitable for large scale deployment of nuclear power, particularly in Indian scenario.

As Chairman, AEC and Secretary, DAE, Ratan Kumar Sinha had put special thrust on several key deliverables for sustainable development and deployment of nuclear energy. Major thrust areas, in continuation to his research at BARC, include advanced nuclear energy systems for thorium utilisation and accelerator technology. He had given high priority to application of radiation technology in the areas of healthcare management, agriculture, food preservation and water purification. He had also strengthened outreach activities of DAE for spreading awareness about the peaceful uses of atomic energy among the general public. He had been instrumental in kick starting several public outreach campaigns to present the human face of India’s nuclear capabilities. Under his leadership, DAE displayed its first ever tableau in the 66th Republic Day Parade 2015 and had launched its social media page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/dae.connect) as a part of public outreach initiatives.

Ratan Kumar Sinha has coined the phrase राष्ट्र की सेवा में परमाणु (Atoms in Service of the Nation) which has been imbibed as the motto of the Department of Atomic Energy. Motto of DAE is a part of the new logo of DAE launched in January 2014.

Director BARC (19 May, 2010 – 19 June, 2012)
Chairman AEC & Secretary DAE (30 April 2012 – 23 October 2015)

Dr. Srikumar Banerjee is an Indian metallurgical engineer. He is a physical metallurgist who made contributions to the study of phase transformations in zirconium and titanium based alloys.

He retired as the Chairman Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) of India and the Secretary of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) on April 30, 2012. Prior to his stint as DAE Chairman, he was the Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) from April 30, 2004 to May 19, 2010. He is currently a DAE Homi Bhabha Chair Professor at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai.

Anil Kakodkar(born 11 November 1943) is an Indian nuclear physicist and mechanical engineer. He was the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and the Secretary to the Government of India, he was the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay from 1996–2000. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour, on 26 January 2009.

Apart from playing a major role in India’s nuclear tests asserting sovereignty, Kakodkar champions India’s self-reliance on thorium as a fuel for nuclear energy.

Rajagopala Chidambaram (born 12 November 1936) is an Indian Physicist who is known for his integral role in India’s nuclear weapons program; he coordinated test preparation for the Pokhran-I (1975) and Pokhran-II(1998).

Previously served as the principal scientific adviser to the federal Government of India, Chidambaram previously served as the director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre(BARC)— and later as chairman, Atomic Energy Commission of the Government of India and he contributed in providing national defence and energy security to India. Chidambaram was chairman of the board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during 1994–95. He was also a member of the Commission of Eminent Persons appointed by the Director-General, IAEA, in 2008 to prepare a report on “The Role of the IAEA to 2020 and Beyond”.

Throughout his career, Chidambaram played a key role in developing India’s nuclear weapons, being a part of the team conducting the first Indian nuclear test (Smiling Buddha) at Pokhran Test Range in 1974. He gained international fame when he led and represented the team of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) while observing and leading efforts to conduct the second nuclear tests in May 1998.