quot;India is responsible nuclear powerquot;

SURAT, Dec 17: India is a responsible nuclear State and we have never in the recent past resorted to aggression to expand our frontiers a...

SURAT, Dec 17: India is a responsible nuclear State and we have never in the recent past resorted to aggression to expand our frontiers and will continue to do so, said R Chidambaram, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in the city on Thursday. The noted nuclear physicist was speaking at a lecture Nuclear India and World Peace8217; organised by the Surat Municipal Corporation at the Gandhi Smruti Bhawan.

While dwelling at length on the procedures just prior to the May 11 Pokharan explosions, during the explosions and the data collected immediately after, he stressed the need to use nuclear power to generate electricity and said that maximum efforts were being made in this direction.

Quoting a Human Development Index of the UN, he said that it had determined three factors namely GNP, life expectancy at birth and adult literacy to be the determinants of development. 8220;Both the Gross National Product GNP as well as life expectancy have a direct bearing on the amount of electricity that each person consumes. I have plotted a number of graphs which prove beyond doubt that we can perform at par, even better than most developed countries if electricity reaches every corner of the country,8221; he said.Dotting his speech with witty humour occasionally, Chidambaram recollected events just prior to the Pokharan tests in May this year. Stating that the tremors caused by the tests could cause cracks in some pucca houses, an hour before the explosion jawans had approached the villagers and asked them to come out of their house saying that there was a bomb threat. However, one villager told them that they knew that a nuclear test was being conducted and asked them to go ahead without worrying about their houses.

8220;While even advanced satellites of the US could not trace the proceedings, the villagers did that so easily,8221; he joked, inviting applause from the gathering.

On the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTBT, he said if all goes well and India does sign the treaty, it will still be able to conduct tests of the sub kiloton kind. Of the three nuclear devices exploded on May 11, two were of 45 kiloton and 15 kiloton respectively, while the third was a sub kiloton bomb. 8220;The yield of explosions this time round, as compared to the earlier time was 5 times more,8221; he said.

Earlier, Mayor Savita Sharda welcomed the speaker. In her address she said it was because of the will of the government and efforts of the scientists that India had achieved the status of a nuclear power. Commissioner S Jagadeesan, while introducing the speaker, listed down his achievements since he joined the Bhabha Atomic Centre in 1962 and said that the city was proud to have a distinguished guest like him.