Out of the nuclear shadow

Book review of Fire and Fury: Transforming India's Strategic Identity

Besides space technology, atomic energy is one area in which India has made timely investments, notwithstanding an international embargo. This development can be better appreciated if we consider the contrast in our neglect of strategic sectors such as manufacturing of telecom equipment and in Artificial Intelligence. The credit for this early initiative in atomic energy goes to a few dedicated atomic and space scientists who pursued their goals with consummate passion and dedication. 

In Fire and Fury: Transforming India’s Strategic Identity,  India’s two renowned atomic scientists, Anil Kakodkar and Suresh Gangotra, recount India’s journey in developing atomic energy and attaining nuclear criticality. The authors’ account tells us how India’s nuclear technology was indigenously developed because of the nuclear embargo, thanks principally to the innovative thinking and ingenuity of scientists like Dr Kakodkar. 

In the chapter dealing with civil nuclear cooperation, Dr Kakodkar shares some of his experiences involving the tenuous negotiations, with which he was intrinsically involved, over finalising the historic accord in the mid-2000s that dismantled India’s nuclear apartheid. The authors observe that the Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation was a huge tectonic shift in international politics and marked a complete contrast with the decades of international efforts to deny India any nuclear commerce through a global non-proliferation architecture created in the wake of the country’s first nuclear detonation— touted as a “peaceful explosion”— in May, 1974. Dr Kakodkar was convinced that America needed India much more than India needed America.  After some deep thought, he agreed to the Indo-US joint statement that initiated the nuclear deal, but he was always concerned that India should not open up cooperation in certain areas of the nuclear programme that impacted the country’s strategic atomic energy programme as well as the evolving three-stage programme, which risked it to external constraints. 

In the book, the authors explain the three-stage nuclear programme. In the first stage, natural or enriched uranium is used as the fissile material. In the second stage, Fast Breeder Reactors use a mixed fuel made from Plutonium-239 (recovered by reprocessing spent fuel from the first stage) and Uranium 238. The plan for the third stage is to set up nuclear reactors employing thorium-based fuel. Thus, the three stages are integrated, with each preceding stage reinforcing the succeeding one. 

Dr Kakodkar wanted the Indo-US joint statement to reflect these terms clearly and unambiguously. Although he was not obdurate on the matter, he argued fairly strongly for these terms, for which he was put in a very embarrassing position by others in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The PM, however, stood by him and credited him for saving the country. His implacability on the issue earned him the sobriquet of being “a 600-pound gorilla” by the US media — which he took as a compliment. 

Fire and Fury: Transforming India’s Strategic Identity 

Author: Anil Kakodkar & Suresh Gangotra

Publisher: Rupa

Pages: 194

Price: Rs 500

Dr Kakodkar’s formidable reputation as a tough negotiator even drew the attention of President George Bush whom he met during the latter’s visit to India in March 2006. At the meeting President Bush asked Dr Kakodkar if he were happy with the accord and he said he was.

The book also throws light on nuclear cooperation between India and China, which is not widely known. It is worthwhile to recall this cooperation between the two countries at a time when bilateral relations are so frosty. The authors mention that India needed low-enriched uranium fuel for its reactors at Tarapur. China had supplied this in the past. Once, during a conference under the aegis of International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Dr Kakodkar approached the leader of the Chinese delegation for supply of uranium to Indian reactors and was told that they were short of uranium and no longer in a position to supply anymore. 

China was, however, interested in fast reactors, and India was way ahead in this technology. India, meanwhile, had an interest in high-temperature reactors where China was ahead of India. This mutual need opened the door for a rare win-win cooperation. The authors opine that such “soft” cooperation could continue in the form of occasional seminars or meetings. 

Dr Kakodkar mentions that he once visited China in 2005, leading a delegation to exchange ideas in this regard.

The book also describes Dr Kakodkar’s modest yet highly educated and enlightened family background and his rise as an internationally acknowledged nuclear scientist who built the edifice of India’s atomic energy infrastructure. In his prologue “Ekalavya’s Report Card”, he acknowledges with great humility and modesty his gratitude to the nation at large for his success. The nation is certainly grateful for his seminal contributions which have enabled the country to become a de-facto nuclear power.

The reviewer is a senior fellow of Indian Council of Social Science Research at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi