New Delhi, Sep 21 (Inditop.com) Rebutting National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan’s assertions, K. Santhanam, the scientist who was involved in India’s nuclear tests in 1998, Monday reiterated that the thermonuclear device exploded by India had not worked according to design expectations and showed photographs of the site that had no crater.
Santhanam, along with physicist Ashok Parthasarthi, had last week written an afrticle in The Hindu newspaper that questioned the official version that India’s May 1998 nuclear tests were a success.
The NSA told a television channel in an interview that Santhanam and other scientists had ulterior motives and they were not privy to the classified information to come to that conclusion.
“He is barking up the wrong tree,” responded Santhanam at a media interaction at the Indian Women’s Press Corps.
He said there were “several inaccuracies in that statement”.
The scientist recalled that after the tests when they visited the shaft of the thermonuclear device at Pokhran in Rajasthan, it was found “by and large undamaged”.
In contrast, the fission bomb explosion at the time which had a yield of 20-25 kiloton, left behind a large crater, he said.
He noted that there was immediate reservation among some scientists “whether the thermonuclear device had actually worked to design expectations”.
A classified technical study report was submitted to the government towards 1998-end.
“Thereafter, a meeting was held in which scientists from DRDO and BARC participated. Despite fairly long discussions the two agencies agreed to disagree,” said Santhanam.
The chairman of that meeting had said the matter would be taken to the minister concerned, who would charter the future course, Santhanam recounted.
He was answering a query on why he chose to go public after so many years. “The impression that suddenly the jack-in-the-antique box is up, is not based on facts,” he said.
The scientist also released photographs of “ground zero” of the thermonuclear device, which showed that there was no crater after the explosion. There should have been a crater of 72 metres radius if the device had been successful, he said.
“This picture tells a story that we have to do more honest homework in the direction of improving our thermonuclear design,” said Santhanam.
Asked if the depth of the shaft made a difference to the crater size, he indicated that while he could not reveal the exact measurements, it was sufficient to create a substantial crater.
Santhanam said that the radio-chemical analysis of the test was classified and had not been shared with the scientists.
Former science advisor to prime minister Indira Gandhi, Ashok Parthasarthi said by questioning the results “the intention was not to denigrate the nuclear weapons programme, but to set the matter right”.
“We have to have a credible nuclear weapons deterrent. We have already lost time,” said Parthasarthi, who was involved in Pokhran-1 test in 1974.
India tested five nuclear devices in May 1998, including the thermonuclear device.
