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initial flux of knowledge and expertise India needed to run its nuclear
program. This reactor was brought in mutual agreement that it be used for
peaceful purposes only. Interestingly, India did not buy its nuclear fuel from
Canada or the US. Instead, it pursued its own fuel cycle based on its threestage nuclear program. Additionally, in 1964 it was able to build a
reprocessing plant dubbed Project Phoenix that had a 30-ton capacity for
reprocessing plutonium (4). This plan was was based on the US plutoniumreprocessing method known as PUREX (4).
Indias nuclear technology centered around the nuclear energy
program that India was increasingly allocating its resources to. It is believed
that the Dhruva heavy-water reactor in the suburbs of Mumbai was used to
produce weapons grade plutonium(4 ). It is believed to produce on the order
of 20 kg of weapons grade plutonium in its spent fuel (4). Dhruva was
safeguards free as the IAEA did not exist at the time of the agreement for the
CIRUS reactor. Dhruva was based on CIRUS, a CANDU reactor which India
received from the US and Canada to utilize in their three-stage nuclear
program to breed the plutonium needed to utilize thorium as their base
nuclear fuel (1). However, CIRUS was outlined by the US as only for civilian
use. The help that India received from Canada and the US to develop its
reactors along with their budding nuclear energy program, afforded India a
chance to secretly produce their nuclear weapons. The foreign expertise
received from the US and Canada fed India with valuable knowledge that
would later be used to produce a weapon.
The path to proliferation for India began during P.K. Iyengars 1968 visit
to the Soviet Union to tour the fast fission reactors there. Iyengar was the
head of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission and a nuclear physicist who
helped elevate India to the nuclear club. He was impressed by the facilities in
the Soviet Union and the potential to conduct fission research that could help
pave the way for a nuclear weapon given that fast fission is essentially the
basis for nuclear fission in nuclear bombs (3). He later set out for a plan to
make a fast fission reactor dubbed Purnima. This reactor brought much
militant relationship. While the USSR had provided India with military aid in
the past, when India needed support during the war, they did not provide
military help. The Soviets were facing down to the US at the same moment in
the Cuban Missile Crisis and switched to support the Chinese to bolster its
own position (5). This resulted in the USSR as an unreliable ally. They didnt
want to be at the same disadvantage with the Soviets as they were with the
Chinese.
Being a fish in a pond of sharks, India was surrounded by diplomatic
countries. China was getting much attention for being a superpower in the
early 60s. The only reason they were seen as a superpower was due to their
nuclear weapons. They were given a seat on the UN Security Council
whereas India was not. With the same economic growth as China, India had a
hard desire to have the same self prestige that China was getting. Pakistan
also had a relationship with China making them feel even more powerless.
India had a desire for prestige and respect in the international community.
The leaders of India chased after the idea of power and social recognition
which became a driving force for the goal of nuclear weapons.
Pakistan proved not to be a concern. When Pakistan and India fought in
1971 over borders between the two countries, India won. India did not see
them as a threat because they were able to be handled by conventional
means (5). Chinas militant relationship with Pakistan proved to be nothing
since they failed to provide any means of assistance. Pakistan suffered
military defeat as well as demonstrating inferiority to India. The fear of the
relationship between China and Pakistan proved to be nothing. During this
time, India had grown closer to the USSR because of the CIRUS project.
India detonated their first nuke in 1974. While Indias reasoning for the
detonation was for peaceful purposes, it soon came clear that there was no
scientific evidence for peaceful purposes but just to see that it worked (5).
For the next few years, Indias weapon program and civilian program halted.
They lacked resources due to the halt of aid from other countries. India
struggled to gain credibility. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi came into power for
Conclusion
India was a perfect example of a country motivated to pursue nuclear
weapons in the midst of geopolitical threats. It coupled its nuclear energy
program with its nuclear weapons program which allowed it to pursue civilian
use of nuclear technology under the Atoms for Peace program and utilize the
knowledge and expertise from this infrastructure to develop its own nuclear
Sources
1. Perkovich, George. 1999. India's Nuclear Bomb: the Impact on
Global Proliferation, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-21772-1.
2. Lstad, O. (2011). 2. The Indian Nuclear Program. In Nuclear
proliferation and international order: Challenges to the nonproliferation treaty. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
3. Davies, S. (1996). Assessing India's nuclear weapons posture:
The end of ambiguity? Monterey, Calif.: Naval Postgraduate School ;.