| The echo of India's nuclear test refuses to die. Whether we
like it or not, the bomb continues to dominate our environment, to influence our thinking.
A few years ago the acronym CTBT would have been meaningless to us. Now even at casual
cocktail parties people pontificate over whether we should sign it or not. Fact is, we've
all suddenly become nuclear literate. Part of
this growing awareness includes a questioning. Did the tests really succeed? Is there an
independent mechanism to verify scientists' claims? No longer can the Atomic Energy
Department and the Defence Research and Development Organisation refuse to part with
information on grounds of national interest. They are accountable. Especially in an age
where foreign scientists, armed with satellite pictures and seismological information,
independently track and assess India's nuclear tests.
And their research findings so far are at great variance with
Indian claims. Quite simply, as our cover story explains, western researchers are raising
doubts over whether India's hydrogen bomb worked at all. Did the test fail?
To get an accurate answer, Deputy Editor Raj Chengappa, who
has done several of our cover stories on the nuclear question, was given rare access to
key scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Trombay who were involved with the
Pokhran II explosions. Apart from being allowed to look at the major findings and results
of the tests, Chengappa was also granted an exclusive interview with S.K. Sikka, who led
the team that made the physics designs of India's nuclear devices. Says Chengappa:
"Top scientists yearn for peer review and acceptance. And it is usually frustrating
for them to be unable to discuss their results freely because of valid defence
considerations."
So was the H-bomb a dud? Read the story.
(Aroon Purie) |
