Re: Ex-Saudi Spy Chief Warns Against Iran Attack, Jordan Times Says - Businessweek

Sid Harth — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:57:12 -0000

Turki al-Faisal is right. Iran cannot be coerced, as long as their objective, (declared and obvious) to develop a civilian nuclear program. Among others who started in this great tradition, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first and a long time prime minister of India, with a little help from Dr Homi Bhabha.

India's First Nuclear Reactor was Apsara. It was also
the first nuclear reactor in Asia. Apsara went critical at Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre (BARC), Trombay on August 4, 1956. It heralded the
arrival of India's nuclear energy programme. Dr. Homi Bhabha himself
conceptualised the design of the reactor and the reactor was built
entirely by Indian engineers in a record time of about 15 months.

Subsequently, this little start developed into India's first atom bomb.

The nuclear weapons efforts were remarkably established in 1944 by Homi J. Bhabha who founded the nuclear institute Institute of Fundamental Research in 1944. Nuclear physicist Piara Singh Gill also returned to the country from the United States after participating in the Manhattan Project in 1945. Physicists such as Chandrasekhara Raman and Satyendra Bose later went onto play an integral role in the research of nuclear weapons technology.

After Indian independence, Premier Jawarharalal Nehru authorized the development of a nuclear programme headed by Homi J. Bhabha; the Atomic Energy Act of 1948 focuses on peaceful development. India was heavily involved in the development of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but ultimately opted not to sign.

We must develop this atomic energy quite apart from war - indeed I
think we must develop it for the purpose of using it for peaceful
purposes. ... Of course, if we are compelled as a nation to use it for
other purposes, possibly no pious sentiments of any of us will stop the
nation from using it that way

—Jawaharalal Nehru— 1st Premier of Republic of India,

In 1954, Bhabha moved the nuclear programme in a direction towards
weapons design and production. Bhabha established two important
infrastructure projects - the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Mumbai and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)
of which Bhabha was its first secretary. Between the period of 1954 to
1959, the nuclear programme grew swiftly and by 1958 the DAE had 1/3 of
the defence budget for research purposes. In 1954, the United States and Canada, as part of the Atoms for Peace policy, agreed to provide and established the small research reactor, CIRUS, also at Trombay. Acquisition of CIRUS
was a watershed event in nuclear proliferation, with understanding
between India and the United States that the reactor would use for
research purposes only. The CIRUS
was an ideal facility to develop the plutonium bomb, therefore Nehru
had refused to accept the nuclear fuel from Canada, and started the
programme to develop the ingenious nuclear fuel cycle.

In 1962, the nuclear programme continued to develop, but at slow rate. Nehru was distracted by the Sino-Indian War, but lost territory after China had successfully annexed the territory after launching a successful assault. Nehru turned to the Soviet Union for help but it was facing the missile crisis. The Russian Politburo
turned down Nehru's request for weapon supply and was shocked after
Nehru found that Soviet Union was indeed backing the Chinese.
The legacy of this war left an impression on India that the Soviet
Union was an unreliable ally, therefore a nuclear deterrence was felt
necessary at that time. Design work began in 1965 under Bhabha but later proceeded by Raja Ramanna who took over the programme after latter's death. However, the nuclear programme came to a halt after Lal Bahadur Shastri became the premier after Nehru's death. Shastri faced a another war, this time with West-Pakistan (now Pakistan). Shastri appointed Dr. Vikram Sarabhai as the head of nuclear programme, but because of his Gandhian nature, Sarabhai focused the programme to be developed into more peaceful purposes rather than the military applications.

In 1967, after Indira Gandhi became the premier, the work on nuclear programme was re-started with new a attitude and goals. Homi Sethna,
a chemical engineer, played a significant role in the development of
weapon-grade plutonium while Ramanna designed and manufactured the whole
nuclear device. Because of the sensitivity, the first nuclear bomb project did not employed more than 75 scientists.

On 7 September 1972 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi authorized the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) to manufacture a nuclear device and prepare it for a test. Throughout its development, the device was formally called the "Peaceful Nuclear Explosive", but it was usually referred to as the Smiling Buddha.

The Smiling Buddha, formally designated as Pokhran-I, was the codename given to Republic of India's first nuclear test explosion that took place at the long-constructed Indian Army base, Pokhran Test Range at Pokhran municipality, Rajasthan state on 18 May 1974 at 8:05 a.m. (IST). It was also the first confirmed nuclear test by a nation outside the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The explosive yield of the bomb was reported to be 8 kt.
Thirty years is a long time to develop a crude atom bomb. I hope Iranian scientists are better than their counterpart in India.

Businessweek - Latest Comments in Ex-Saudi Spy Chief Warns Against Iran Attack, Jordan Times Says - Businessweek

Re: Ex-Saudi Spy Chief Warns Against Iran Attack, Jordan Times Says - Businessweek