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India needs two more H-bomb tests

Santhanam believes that there is still time to do so before the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is ratified by the US and China.

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At least two more trial tests are required for India to perfect the thermonuclear, or hydrogen, bomb, says retired scientist K Santhanam. The scientist created a furore last month by claiming that the H-bomb test conducted in 1998 was a dud.

Santhanam believes that there is still time to do so before the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is ratified by the US and China. “I have recommended the crossing of the rubicon,” Santhanam told reporters during an interaction with reporters organised by the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) in the capital.

He went on to say that it was up to the government of the day to factor in the economic and diplomatic considerations before taking or rejecting his advice. He believes that the time to conduct another test is now, before the CTBT comes into force. According to him, the country can well afford another test as “the pain will not be much”.

Santhanam was critical of the economic lobby which, even in 1998, was afraid of the repercussions and the sanctions which would follow. His contention is that there is no use developing the Agni 3 missile, which can travel 4,000 km, if it is capable of taking a load of just 20 kt (kilotonnes). The bomb dropped over Hiroshima in August, 1945, was just about 15 kt and killed around 140,000 people instantly, devastating the city. The after-effects continued for decades.

Santhanam, however, agrees that barring the thermonuclear one, the four other tests “worked like a dream”. In short, India has a minimum nuclear deterrent to stave off the threat from Pakistan, but needs the H-bomb to ward off the Chinese nuclear threat. any government protect the nation’s security unless it accepts that the thermonuclear device of Pokharan-II was a failure.

It was totally incapable of weaponisation and (we) must resume testing immediately by lifting the so-called unilateral voluntary moratorium on nuclear tests announced by the Vajpayee government,” Santhanam and Ashok  Parthasarathi, a former scientific adviser to late prime minister Indira Gandhi, said in a written statement.

The two men called for the setting up of an independent panel of established scientists to go into the Pokharan-II thermonuclear tests. They want the facts to be made public so that a national debate takes place.

The hardline H-bomb lobby wants India to have a better hydrogen bomb to combat China, but this line has its critics, especially those who were involved with Pokharan-II. Former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman R Chidambaram and former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra have both rubbished Santhanam’s claims.

“I don’t want to get into this debate. Enough has already been said. The AEC, in its recent meetings, has given the verdict: “The tests were perfect. Several papers have also been published by BARC scientists in reputed scientific journals. There is nothing more to say,’’ Chidambaram told DNA. Brajesh Mishra refused to comment saying that enough has been said on the subject.

National Security Adviser MK Narayanan rebutted Santhanam’s claims in a television programme last  weekend, saying that the AEC tomic Energy Commission had gone through the results of the tests. “They [AEC] were satisfied in 1998 and they were satisfied in 2009. Now what are you going to discuss?” he asked Karan Thapar in the programme.

Narayanan said the AEC was asked to study the data of the 1998 nuclear tests once again in the wake of the controversy over the efficacy of the hydrogen bomb. “I think, we have done what we have done. Beyond that I do not know what we can do,” he said.
 
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