Data play

The Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (barc), Mumbai, used "wrong" data and "unacceptable" methods of analysis to arrive at erroneous results that were published in several journals and world conferences between 1989 and 1991. This has been stated in a paper published in the Indian scientific journal Current Science. The paper has been authored by six scientists of barc. The scientists point to the element protactinium with nuclear mass 231 (Pa-231) that occurs in fission waste. Based on incorrect data published without verification, barc had concluded

Thailand

Around 100 villagers in Thailand protested on August 27 against a decision of the House budget scrutiny panel to approve funds for a nuclear research project at Ongkharak district in Nakhon Nayok. The villagers also demanded that the government must revoke the contract which was signed between Atomic Energy for Peace and General Atomics of the us.

Super-heavy elements

the first attempt to prepare a transuranic element (which is heavier than uranium) was made in 1934 in Rome, where a team of Italian physicists headed by the legendary Enrico Fermi bombarded uranium nuclei with free neutrons. The first such element produced was neptunium with an atomic number 93. (Atomic number is the number of protons in the nucleus, and uranium has 92). Since then, many new elements have been produced in the laboratory and their properties studied. Recently, scientists have discovered three new elements, of atomic numbers 114, 116 and 118.

Fusion reactor

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory have made a thermonuclear fusion reactor that, they claim, can fit on a laboratory bench. The reactor consists of a femtosecond laser (femtosecond is a million-billionth of a second) that hits laser pulses at clusters of deuterium atoms. The cluster explodes because of the tremendous energy and some of the atoms undergo fusion. Though the process is not energy efficient, the scientists feel that because of the low costs, it could replace reactors and be used to study thermonuclear reactions ( Nature , Vol 398, p489).

Voices

Mahbub ul Haq

The aftermath

Inside view

it is something that has always tempted physicists. What does the inside of a atomic bomb looks like a microsecond after it detonates? In fact, scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, usa , stayed up nights thinking about it, and a group of them recently demonstrated a clever new way to film the burn fronts that determine whether a warhead booms or fizzles.

Nuclear capacity

ACCORDING to a study published by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), New Delhi, India will have the capacity to produce up to 50 nuclear weapons by the year 2000. The study says that going at the present rate of plutonium (which is a fuel used in producing fission or atomic bombs) at various atomic reactors in the country, India will have an inventory of about 250 kg reactor grade plutonium, which will be enough for producing 50 nuclear weapons.

Target: neutrino mass

several experiments are being conducted by researchers to measure the mass of neutrinos -- one of the most weakly interacting particles. Mass is a quantity which a body contains. These particles do not possess any charge and interact through their weak nuclear force. A force that acts between the nucleons is called nuclear force. If the neutrino's mass is discovered then it will lead the way to a new theory of elementary particles and forces.

Nuke deal

with a view to curbing the spread of Russian nuclear technology to other countries, the us department of energy will be funding the development of a new nuclear reactor design at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow. The us will provide a new technology that makes use of radioactive thorium instead of uranium as fuel in reactors for producing electricity. The new techno-logy does not produce hazardous plutonium as a byproduct.