place

CIRUS reactor

1954 establishments in Bombay StateCanada–India relationsMilitary nuclear reactorsNuclear technology in India

CIRUS (Canada India Reactor Utility Services) was a research reactor at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) in Trombay near Mumbai, India. CIRUS was supplied by Canada in 1954, but used heavy water (deuterium oxide) supplied by the United States. It was the second nuclear reactor to be built in India. It was modeled on the Canadian Chalk River National Research X-perimental (NRX) reactor. The 40 MW reactor used natural uranium fuel, while using heavy water as a moderator. It is a tank reactor type with a core size of 3.14 m (H) × 2.67 m (D). It first went critical July 10, 1960.The reactor was not under IAEA safeguards (which did not exist when the reactor was sold), although Canada stipulated, and the U.S. supply contract for the heavy water explicitly specified, that it only be used for peaceful purposes. Nonetheless, CIRUS produced some of India's initial weapons-grade plutonium stockpile, as well as the plutonium for India's 1974 Pokhran-I (Codename Smiling Buddha) nuclear test, the country's first nuclear test. At a capacity factor of 50–80%, CIRUS can produce 6.6–10.5 kg of plutonium a year. CIRUS was shut down in September 1997 for refurbishment and was scheduled to resume operation in 2003. The reactor was brought back into operation two years late in 2005. During refurbishing, a low-temperature vacuum evaporation-based desalination unit was also coupled to the reactor to serve as demonstration of using waste heat from a research reactor for sea desalination. Even if the reactor has a life of twenty more years, India had declared that this reactor would be shut down by 2010 in accordance with the Indo-US nuclear accord reached between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W. Bush. The reactor was shut down on 31 December 2010.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article CIRUS reactor (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

CIRUS reactor
Central Avenue New Mandala Road, Mumbai M/E Ward (Zone 5)

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: CIRUS reactorContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 19.007777777778 ° E 72.918611111111 °
placeShow on map

Address

Central Avenue New Mandala Road

Central Avenue New Mandala Road
400094 Mumbai, M/E Ward (Zone 5)
Maharashtra, India
mapOpen on Google Maps

Share experience

Nearby Places

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's premier nuclear research facility, headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra. Founded by Homi Jehangir Bhabha Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) in January 1954 as a multidisciplinary research program essential for India's nuclear program. It operates under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India. In 1966 after the death of Mr. Bhabha, AEET was renamed as Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). BARC is a multi-disciplinary research centre with extensive infrastructure for advanced research and development covering the entire spectrum of nuclear science, chemical engineering, material sciences and metallurgy, electronic instrumentation, biology and medicine, supercomputing, high-energy physics and plasma physics and associated research for Indian nuclear programme and related areas. BARC's core mandate is to sustain peaceful applications of nuclear energy. It manages all facets of nuclear power generation, from the theoretical design of reactors to, computer modeling and simulation, risk analysis, development and testing of new reactor fuel, materials, etc. It also researches spent fuel processing and safe disposal of nuclear waste. Its other research focus areas are applications for isotopes in industries, Radiation Technologies and their application to health, food and medicine, agriculture and environment, accelerator and Laser Technology, electronics, instrumentation and reactor control and Material Science, environment and radiation monitoring etc. BARC operates a number of research reactors across the country.Its primary facilities are located in Trombay, with new facilities also located in Challakere in Chitradurga district of Karnataka. A new Special Mineral Enrichment Facility which focuses on enrichment of uranium fuel is under construction in Atchutapuram near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh for supporting India's nuclear submarine program and produce high specific activity radioisotopes for extensive research.

Mahul

Mahul is a fishing village in Chembur, Mumbai (Kurla Tehsil), located on the eastern seafront of the Mumbai Suburban district. The village is known Since 2017, Mahul has been in news for its high levels of pollution and the dismal conditions of its 72 building slum resettlement colony because of which it has come to be referred to as Mumbai's "toxic hellhole", "gas chamber" and "human dumping ground", where the poor "are sent to die".The Mahul-Trombay belt, which includes the villages of Mahul, Ambapada and Chereshwar were sparsely populated regions, home only to a few local fishing communities and thick mangrove forests. The industrial diversification that began in the country during World War II led to a movement of the population beyond the northern suburbs of the 1930s. In 1947, the Committee on Industrial Development came to the conclusion that "Trombay [is] ... most suitable ... [because of its] proximity to the deep water jetty and [being] far removed from residential populations". This thinking guided the government's actions during the first Five Year Plan after independence, when the state owned refineries now present in the region were first established. Over the next few decades, Mahul became home to major industrial establishments such as Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL), Tata Power, Rashtriya Chemical Fertilizers (RCF), Sea Lord Containers, Aegis Logistics, Indian Oil, Natual Oil Blending Ltd., Chemical Terminal Trombay Ltd. and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). As a consequence, air and water quality in Mahul and surrounding villages have suffered and its biodiversity is threatened.

Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is a multi-campus public research university in Mumbai, India. It is Asia's oldest institute for professional social work education and was founded in 1936 in then Bombay Presidency of British India as the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. In 1944, the institute was officially renamed as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and in 1964, the Government of India declared TISS as deemed university under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act (UGC), 1956.In 1954, TISS moved to a permanent campus at Deonar, Mumbai (now known as the Main Campus), from the earlier campuses at Nagpada and then Andheri. In 2001, the Deonar campus was expanded to include the Malti Jal and Jal A. D. Naoroji Campus Annexe, which are now commonly known as the New Campus. TISS, in 1986, established a rural campus in Tuljapur, Maharashtra and two off-campuses in Guwahati and Hyderabad in 2011. In addition to these campuses, TISS offers teaching, training, research, and development support from centres established across India including in Leh, Ladakh and Port Blair, the Andaman and Nicobar.TISS's academic programs focus on the social sciences and offers doctoral degrees in Management and Labour Studies, Disaster Studies, Development Studies, Education, Gender Studies, Health Studies, Law, Media and Cultural Studies, Public Policy, Rural Development and Social Work. Since its inception TISS has had a focus on field action including in responding to disasters such as the Partition of India, the Bhopal disaster and Uttarakhand floods. Several TISS initiatives have shaped public policy in India, such as India's labour welfare laws. Notable organizations and personalities have been appreciative of TISS's social service work including Eleanor Roosevelt, Jawaharlal Nehru, Niels Bohr and the United Nations, among others.