16.8.13

INS Arihant


The miniaturized atomic reactor on board India’s first indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant has “gone critical’’, in a big leap towards making the country’s long-awaited nuclear weapons triad an operational reality.
Sources said the 83 mw pressurized light-water reactor, fuelled by enriched uranium, achieved “criticality’’ late on Friday night after months of “checking and rechecking’’ of all the machinery, systems and sub-systems of the 6000-tonne submarine.
INS Arihant has been undergoing trials at the heavily guarded ship-building centre in Visakhapatnam.
The green signal for the reactor to be finally switched on was apparently given by the top-secret meeting of the Nuclear Command Authority, chaired by PM Manmohan Singh and attended by Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) members, among others,on July 31.
On Saturday, congratulating the Navy, Department of Atomic Energy and DRDO for the milestone, the PM said it marked “a giant stride’’ toward enhancing the country’s security.
Only the Big-5 — the US, Russia, China, the UK and France — currently operate nuclear-powered submarines armed with nuclear-tipped missiles. INS Arihant will be followed by INS Aridhaman and another similar vessel already being constructed under India’s secretive strategic project for which over Rs 30,000-crore have already been sanctioned. INS Arihant was so far being tested in the harbour with high-pressure steam from the shore.
The umbilical chord is now being cut. With the submarine now powered by the self-sustained, fission reaction in the reactor fitted inside a containment chamber in the hull,it will eventually head for open waters for extensive “sea- acceptance trials” with a 95-member crew led by Captain Sanjay Mahendru.

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