Site for research n-reactor proves elusive

By Shakeel M. Rasheed

VISAKHAPATNAM, OCT. 25. A research nuclear reactor--unique to any educational institution in the country--has been assigned to the 74-year-old Andhra University, but its implementation process is faced with problems for want of a site identified for it.

Interestingly, the piece of land zeroed in for the project lies within the campus itself, but the hitch, however, is that the residential bungalow of the District Collector sits snugly on it. The novelty of the project is described in the context of it being the first to be located in a university outside the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) as even in advanced Western countries very few universities boast of such a facility. Further, it is to serve as one of the centres of the Board of Radiation and Radioisotopes Technology (BRIT) in the eastern region of the country to meet the radioisotopic needs of the user institutions here.

Backed by the credentials of pioneering teaching and research in nuclear sciences in the country by starting the Department of Nuclear Physics in 1953 and in a bid to further consolidate and expand the scope of research and development in nuclear and allied sciences, the AU had proposed setting up a low power research reactor on the campus to the Department of Atomic Energy in 1993.

On being exposed to a thorough examination through several discussions between the faculty and BARC scientists, the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciencies (BRNS) of the DAE gave the go-ahead and agreed to construct and commission the research reactor in the Ninth Plan. The site selection committee appointed by the Director of BARC found the piece of lush green land--part of which lies occupied by the Collector's bungalow--as suitable for the locating the reactor. The site was also evaluated and cleared by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).

The project, on construction and commissioning by BARC, is to be handed over to the university for operation and maintenance besides taking up collaborative research programme. The DAE has already sanctioned the estimated cost of the project of Rs.9.50 crores with the State Government agreeing to foot the annual bill of Rs.75 lakhs for its operation and maintenance. Though the reactor was evisaged to be accomplished during the period 1998-99 to 2001-02, the project schedule is given to uncertainty with the land for it still proving elusive.

The reactor at Andhra University would be of a `pool type with fixed core' with a maximum power of 100 KW applying low enriched uranium as the fuel. The core consists of standard plate type of U3Si2-A1 alloy with low enrichment of U-235. The core cooling is achieved by natural convection. Demineralised water would be used as coolant/moderator/reflector.

While the reactor is expected to contribute to meeting human resources required in the expansion programmes in the field of nucelar science envisaged in the country, its immediate impact would be facilitating research and training for university scientists and students in the use of reactor-produced neutrons in basic sciences like physics, chemistry, metallurgy, pharmacy and biology besides applications in areas like neutron activation analysis and neutron radiography.

The significance of the site identified on the campus for the project is underscored by the inter-disciplinary and research that the proposed reactor is to foster with departments of all related subjects located in close proximity and the practical convenience it affords in isolating the short-lived radioisotopes produced by the reactor in pure chemical form for application as tracers in areas like biology, botany, medicine and agriculture.

"Also, the site has been evaluated for all technical parameters and found exemplary, a process that took nearly a year and a half. Though the site identified is adjacent to the Collector's bungalow, residential quarters cannot exist next to the reactor. The bungalow would be suitable to us for laboratory purposes," a university scientist said.

The setting up of the reactor is to be a joint enterprise of the State Government, AU and the DAE, and an MoU to be signed between the three partners is intertwined with the handing over of the site. Though the University authorities are optimistic about the project coming through, they find the responsibility of making the next move to be squarely resting with the Collector.

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