BARC develops fourth gen uranium enrichment gas centrifuges

As part of India's strategic programme, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has developed fourth generation uranium enrichment gas centrifuges with an output of more than 10 times the earlier design, a top BARC official has said.      

"An experimental cascade of the fourth generation design is in operation at BARC and will soon be ready for induction at the Rare Materials Plant (RMP) in Ratnahalli near Mysore," BARC director Sreekumar Banerjee said addressing the Founder's Day celebration yesterday.      

"The Third generation design with 5 times more output than earlier designs are presently being inducted at RMP," he said.      

Enriched uranium fuel supplied by BARC for the light water reactor programme at Kalpakkam for strategic purposes has been performing quite satisfactorily, Banerjee said.      

"Our facility at Mysore is ready to meet the demands of the current strategic programme. We have had remarkable success in improving the separating work of our centrifuges and I am confident that we will be in a position to enter the uranium enrichment activity on an industrial scale within a short time," he added.      

On fresh challenges for scientists and engineers, he said, "we must maintain a constant vigil on our performance so that the technology gain that has been achieved through years of efforts is kept well-secured despite the threat of technology invasion."