Development Status For the

INDIAN NUCLEAR PLAN

MEMORANDUM
 7th February 1963: India’s Nuclear programme undertaken by Homi Sethna.
 Late in 1967 the scientific leadership at BARC led by Homi Sethna and Raja
Ramanna undertook a new effort to develop nuclear explosive charge, one that
was larger and more intense than any previous efforts.
 1968: Project PURNIMA undertaken.
 FEBRUARY 1969 - P.K. Iyengar visited the Soviet Union with seven
colleagues and toured the nuclear research facilities at Dubna. He was very
impressed by the plutonium fueled pulsed fast reactor he saw there.
 Special components brought from The Soviet’s for Indian Nuclear programme.
 JULY 7th 1970: Purnima(Plutonium Reactor for Neutron Investigation in
Multiplying Assemblies )designed to use a hexagonal core of 177 stainless steel
pencil shaped rods containing 18 kg of plutonium as 21.6 kg of plutonium
oxide pellets (enough for three Fat Man type bombs) with a nominal average
power of 1 watt. Mahadeva Srinivasan developed a sophisticated physics model
for criticality calculations in 1970.

 MARCH 8th : INDIA’S First Nuclear programme PROJECT NAME

(PURNIMA)(CODE NAME) :BLACK FOREST developed .Waiting for Hon.
Prime Minister’s approval for testing and deployment.