MUMBAI: India wants to participate in multinational futuristic atomic energy programmes such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Project (ITER) and Large Hardon Collider.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here on Tuesday that he had taken up the Indian intent with world leaders "and I am happy that we are eliciting a positive response."

Dr. Singh said, "This is a fitting recognition of the capabilities and achievements of our scientists." He was inaugurating 16th Annual Conference of the Indian Nuclear Society (INS) at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

The ITER has been conceived by the United States, Russia, China, Japan, Korea and the European Union to build a reactor for hot fusion. The Collider project for atomic research is being built by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Dr. Singh reassured the nation, particularly the nuclear community, that nuclear cooperation with the U.S. in the civilian energy sector would be gone through without hindering the strategic and other aspects of the nuclear programme.

"We must create the space for a quantum jump in nuclear energy production in the coming decades, in a manner that is consistent with our national policy of maintaining the integrity of our three-stage nuclear energy programme, without constraining strategic and research and development related aspects of our nuclear programme."

The three-stage programme progresses along the uranium-plutonium route towards thorium utilisation, relying heavily on reprocessed fuel.

Dr. Singh stressed the need for international cooperation for India to meet the challenge of "our future energy security. ... We have interest in the establishment of an enabling environment conducive to international cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy."

In his welcome speech, R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government and president of the INS, said the nuclear fuel cycle should continue to be a closed one, signifying the continuous use of the reprocessed nuclear fuel.

Earlier, Dr. Singh inaugurated the BARC's Supercomputing Facility comprising the TeraFlop class 512-node Anupam supercomputer, High Resolution Tiled Display Cluster and many other powerful computing clusters integrated seamlessly, using the ultra-fast network technology via a computer grid.

Awards presented

The Prime Minister presented INS awards to nuclear scientists and engineers for their outstanding contributions. TheINS Homi Bhabha Lifetime Achievement Award was received by V.K. Sharma, principal designer of the country's first 540-MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR)-based power plants, which became operational at Tarapur recently. He was also involved in the development of a 700-MWe PHWR.

Dr. Singh presented the INS Industrial Excellence Award toBharat Heavy Electricals Limited. Its Chairman and Managing Director, A.K. Puri, received the award.

The public sector undertaking has built nuclear steam generators and heat exchangers for different PHWRs, besides nuclear research equipment for the BARC.

The INS is a non-governmental professional body promoting nuclear science in the country.

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