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Overview - India Special Weapons Facilities

India's nuclear energy development program has allowed it to obtain the essential materials and facilities needed to produce nuclear weapons. This infrastructure includes seven operating nuclear power plants, two research reactors at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center near Bombay, where India produced its stock of weapons-grade plutonium, and resources for producing and reprocessing plutonium and enriching uranium. Indian pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR) can be used to generate electricity, as well as producing plutonium and tritium. As additional indigenously built nuclear power reactors become operational, India's capability to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons will increase. Although India is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, only some Indian nuclear reactors are subject to IAEA safeguards.

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has several scientific institutes and production centers with current or potential dual-purpose commercial and military functions: the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai (outside of Trombay); the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam; the Centre for Advanced Technology (CAT) at Indore; the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) in Calcutta; the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) (outside Hyderabad); Indian Rare Earth Ltd. (IRE) at Trombay (under BARC); and the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) at Calcutta. The military-led Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) also has several facilities that contribute to both conventional and nuclear weapons programs, most importantly the Defense Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), the Defense Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), and Bharat Dynamics.

The devices used in the May 1998 tests were designed, developed, and partly manufactured by personnel from BARC. BARC's 100 megawatt Dhruva and 40 megawatt Cirus heavy water research reactors provided the plutonium utilized in the May 1998 tests, and the reprocessing (extraction) of this plutonium was also done at BARC. In the future, spent fuel could also be sent to reprocessing plants at Tarapur and the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam.

The Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Calcutta provides expertise on fusion technology and tritium production, both of which contribute to thermonuclear weapons. The Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), also in Calcutta, was used by scientists from Saha to strike Lithium-6 targets with a proton beam, a process which produces tritium gas.

The weapons are designed using powerful supercomputers, which India is capable of producing indigenously at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing in Pune.

The Nuclear Fuels Complex outside Hyderabad contributes nuclear-grade magnesium and calcium to BARC using a process first developed by BARC and the Defense Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), the latter of which is part of the separate Hyderabad Defence Research Complex under the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). Nuclear-grade magnesium and calcium are used to convert fissile materials to metal for the bomb core fabrication process. Another plant inside the Nuclear Fuels Complex produces high-purity tantalum oxide, a chemical that can be used for reprocessing plutonium or for the lining of crucibles for casting plutonium into weapons cores.

A uranium-enrichment plant under direction of Indian Rare Earths, Ltd. at Rattehalli in the Mysore district can produce 28 kg of HEUper year. HEU can be used as the nuclear primer for thermonuclear implosion fusion reactions in warheads.

Once the HEU is made and Plutonium is extracted, it is converted into metallic form at BARC for fabrication of warhead cores. Several DRDO facilities, including DMRL at Hyderabad Defence Research Complex, provide advice on chemical and other technologies that can be used in the core fabrication process. The MIDHANI steel plant and DMRL also produce maraging steel that could be used to make uranium-enrichment centrifuges for HEU production.

DRDO personnel and labs produce the detonators, high-voltage triggers, and safety locks for warhead fusing and command and control. The Centre for Advanced Studies in Indore develops nuclear triggers for warheads. The Defense Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) in the Hyderabad Defence Research Complex is primarily responsible for the design of missile systems and is believed to have provided input to BARC on the fabrication of bomb cores to ensure that the warheads exploded in May 1998 would be capable of mating to the Prithvi and the warhead bus on the Agni-II reentry vehicle. Assisting DRDL in the design of the warhead casing and internal components are the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory at Chandigarh, the Institute for Armament Technology, the Armament Research and Development Establishment, and the High Energy Materials Research Laboratory. MIDHANI steel works and DMRL, also both at Hyderabad, probably performed the actual construction of the warhead shell.