Dr Raja Ramanna
The man behind Pokhran I
The Pokhran experiment was a landmark in the history of nuclear research in the country. It was an assertion of the technological advancement India had determined to perfect in the post-independence era.- Dr Raja Ramanna
One of the great scientific achievements of modern India has been Pokhran I on May 18, 1974, when it carried out it’s first ever peaceful nuclear test. And the man behind this feat, was one of the most multifaceted personalities ever, an eminent nuclear physicist, technologist, administrator, a gifted musician, Sanskrit scholar. Handpicked by Homi J Bhabha himself, he would go on to lead the team for Pokhran I.
Dr. Raja Ramanna, born on January 28, 1925 in Tiptur, located in Tumkur district, to Ramanna and Rukmini, he was a student of Bishop Cotton’s, Bangalore and later Madras Christian College, where he studied arts and literature. His mother came from a well to do family, daughter of a district judge, with a passion for literature. She was fluent in English as well as Kannada, composing poems and articles, as well as a very traditional, religious lady. His father was in the judicial service, a sports enthusiast.
While his early education was in Mysore, he later joined the Bishop Cotton School in Bangalore, where he developed an interest for classical music. He would later graduate from MCC with a degree in Physics, as well as a BA in Classical Music, his twin passions. And finish his Post Graduation in Physics from Bombay University later on, as well as a Post Graduation in Music too.
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He got his PhD in Nuclear Physics from King;s College, London in 1954 and did his research at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, which is where he gained his expertise in nuclear technology. Along with his work in nuclear Physics, Ramanna also continued to follow his passion in Classical Western Music, Western Philosophy, straddling two different worlds at the same time.
On his return to India, he joined BARC, where he worked under Homi Bhabha on classified nuclear projects, whom he considered his major influence. He had earlier met Bhabha in 1944, through Dr Alfred Mistoswki, of the Trinity College of Music. He joined TIFR on December 1, 1949 when it was still in it’s development phase, and began to work on nuclear fission. He would soon contribute in several areas of nuclear physics, as well as organizing the physics program at BARC.
Though India’s nuclear program was intended for peaceful purposes, it was Homi Bhabha who steered it towards military purpose in 1954, resulting in two important infra projects. The first was BARC at Trombay in 1954. The other one was setting up of DAE( Dept of Atomic Energy), of which Bhabha was the first secretary. And in 1954, India established the CIRRUS reactor at Trombay, with the help of US and Canada. CIRRUS was a significant event in the history of India’s nuclear program, the ideal facility to develop a plutonium device and kickstarted the program to develop an indigenous nuclear fuel cycle.
When India’s first research reactor Apsara was launched in 1956, Ramanna looked after the neutronic experiments, while A.S. Rao was the electronics specialist in cosmic ray studies, as well as the control and instrumentation work. Homi Sethna managed the logistics support, heading the Indian Rare Earths Ltd, that supplied the material for the swimming pool reactor, while K.S.Singhvi handled the theoretical physics of the reactor, N. Bhanu Prasad was responsible for overall design of the reactor, and V.T.Krishnan handled the construction part.
Ramanna would make significant contribution in the process of neutron thermalisation, slowing down constants in water and berrylium oxide by using a pulsed neutron source. The neutron spectra emerging out of these moderating assemblies were also studied. Apsara, once commissioned, made intense thermal neutron beams available for basic research, motivating Ramanna to undertake a program of experimental investigations of secondary radiations, emitted in thermal neutron-induced fission of U235. The stochastic theory of fragment mass and charge distributions in fission is a unique contribution of Ramanna to fission theory. The theory, which was based on the model of a random exchange of nucleons between the two nascent fission fragments prior to scission, could explain most of the observed features of fragment mass and charge distribution in low energy fission and their dependence on the excitation energy of the fissioning nucleus.
By 1960, Nehru made the decision to move to full scale production, and discussions were held with Westinghouse Electric to construct India’s first nuclear power plant at Tarapur, near Mumbai. However the rout in the 1962 War with China, meant the nuclear program got distracted. Also the Soviets at that time occupied with the Cuban Missile Crisis, did not back India either.In the meantime Homi Bhabha began to aggresively lobby for nuclear weapons, and also began to propagate via broadcasts.
Lal Bahadur Shastri as PM appointed Vikram Sarabhai in charge of the nuclear program, who however sought to guide it for more peaceful purposes. In 1967 Indira Gandhi became the PM, and the work once again resumed with great vigor. However with the 1971 War breaking out and US presence in the region, the nuclear program was given low priority. During the 1971 War when the US had sent the USS Enterprise in support of Pakistan, the Soviets countered it with a submarine armed with nuke missiles, convincing Indira of the importance of a nuclear deterrent.
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After the war was over, Indira gave BARC the go ahead to produce the nuclear weapons in 1972, putting Ramanna in charge of the program who designed the whole device, along with Dr.Homi Sethna who developed the weapon grade plutonium in place of uranium.
Around 1969, Dr. P.K.Iyengar had toured the Soviet Union, and was impressed by the plutonium fuelled pulsed fast reactor. On his return he began to develop similiar reactors. This secret plant was known as Purnima.
May 1974, Operation Smiling Buddha
. In 1974, Ramanna met Indira Gandhi and informed her, that India was ready to conduct nuclear tests on it’s own. Codenamed as Smiling Buddha, the only other people aware of the nuclear test were Indira’s personal advisers P.N. Haksar and Durga Dhar. Defense Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram came to know of the test only after it was conducted, while Swaran Singh, MEA, within 48 hours.
The Pokhran test was a bomb, I can tell you now…. An explosion is an explosion, a gun is a gun, whether you shoot at someone or shoot at the ground…. I just want to make clear that the test was not all that peaceful. – Dr. Raja Ramanna
Among others were P.K.Iyengar, who designed the bomb, he had previously served as director of BARC and R.Chidambaram, the chief metallurgist, who would later play a critical role in Pokhran II.
N S Venkatesan of the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory developed and manufactured the high explosive implosion system, while W.D.Patwardhan of the HEMRL, designed the detonation system.Dr. Homi Sethna supervised the entire project, as Chairman of Atomic Energy Comission, while APJ Abdul Kalam was there as DRDO representative.
The device was of an implosion type, and somewhat similiar to Fat Man that was dropped on Nagasaki. This system was assembled at Terminal Ballistics Research Lab, DRDO, Chandigarh, while the detonation system was at HEMRL, of DRDO, Pune. 6kg of plutonium needed for the project came from CIRRUS reactor at BARC, while the neutron initiator was of the polonium–beryllium type, code-named Flower, developed by Dr V. K. Iya of BARC.
The nuclear bomb engineered and assembled by Indian engineers at Trombay before transportation to the test site, had a hexagonal cross section, 1.25 metres in diameter, and weighed 1400 kg, mounted on a hexagonal metal tripod. It was transported to the shaft on rails which the army kept covered with sand, much like Pokhran II, and denotated at 8.05 a.m, by Dr. Pranab R. Dastidar in a shaft 107 m under the Pokhran test range.
India had entered the nuclear club. Just 75 civilian scientists were involved in this project, while among the Army, only the COAS Gen Gopal Gurunath Bewoor was aware.
The nuclear test considerably boosted Indira Gandhi’s popularity after the 1971 War, both Homi Sethna and Raja Ramanna were rewarded with the Padma Vibhushan, while 5 other project members got the Padma Shri. The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was actually formed in response to Pokhran I, to check international nuclear proliferation, that effectively ruled out any nuclear exports to India, and it was only in 2008 this was waived off under the nuclear agreement with US.
Canada which had assisted in building of CIRRUS reactor, froze nuclear energy assistance for the two heavy water reactors then under construction. Though the US initially expressed it’s displeasure over the 1974 test, it concluded that it did not violate any agreement and proceeded with a June 1974 shipment of enriched uranium for the Tarapur reactor.
You have done enough for your country; don’t go back. Stay here and take over our nuclear programme. I will pay you whatever you want.- Saddam Hussein to Dr. Raja Ramanna.
While Indira rewarded Dr. Ramanna with the Padma Vibhushan, Saddam Hussein, approached him in 1978, when he was on a visit to Baghdad to develop their nuclear bomb. Needless to say Dr. Ramanna was literally scared out of his wits by Saddam’s proposal, and after a sleepless night, took the first flight out of Baghdad, that was one narrow escape for him.
In his later years however Ramanna called for peaceful use of nuclear energy, and advocated disarmament. He would later serve as director of DRDO, and was a scientific advisor to the Defense Ministry in 2000. He was a gifted musician too, an expert piano player. He authored a book on The Structure of Music in Raga And Western Systems. His autobiography Years of Pilgrimage is worth a read too.
He also served for some time as Minister of State for Defense in the VP Singh Govt, and was a nominated member of Rajya Sabha from 1997-2003. And was closely associated with IIT, Mumbai.
Dr Raja Ramanna passed away on Sept 24,2004 at the age of 79, but his legacy would forever remain in the form of Pokhran I, and his sterling work in India’s nuclear program, especially after the sudden death of Bhabha.