"Apsara-upgraded", a nuclear reactor becomes operational at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

Mumbai, September 12: A swimming pool type research reactor "Apsara-upgraded", of higher capacity was born at Trombay on Tuesday at 18:41 hrs. This comes nearly sixty-two years after Apsara, the first research nuclear reactor in Asia, came into existence.

 

According to information provided by the Department of Atomic Energy, the reactor, made indigenously, uses plate type dispersion fuel elements made of Low Enriched Uranium (LEU). By virtue of higher neutron flux, this reactor will increase indigenous production or radio-isotopes for medical application by about fifty percent and would also be extensively used for research in nuclear physics, material science and radiation shielding.

This development has re-emphasized the capability of Indian scientists and engineers to build, complex facilities for health care, science education and research, Department of Atomic Energy said in a press release.

Apsara, the first research reactor in Asia became operational in Trombay campus of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in August 1956. After providing more than five decades of dedicated service to the researchers, the reactor was shut down in 2009.