Prez Kovind launches integrated centre for crisis mgmt at BARC

President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday inaugurated an integrated centre for crisis management (ICCM) at the iconic Bhabha Atomic Research Centre here that will help the nation respond more effectively to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear emergencies.

The new facility will monitor radiological data from a network of 504 radiation sensors across the country.

Addressing the gathering of atomic scientists at the premier nuclear research facility, Kovind, who also remotely inaugurated three other nuclear facilities of the department of atomic energy, said, “Scientists and the technological community are the real nation-builders, and I salute you.”

Among the other facilities that were inaugurated today include a metal fuel pin fabrication facility jointly developed by BARC and the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research at Kalpakkam, near Chennai, that can increase plutonium production in fast breeder reactors.

The third facility in Hyderabad will help develop highpower electron beam melting furnace for nuclear and strategic applications. This technology is jointly developed by the scientists of BARC and the Nuclear Fuel Complex. Kovind also inaugurated an integrated enriched boron tri-fluoride gas generation facility developed by the Heavy-water Board in Odisha that will be used in neutron detectors.

That apart, the president launched a multi-leaf collimator system developed by BARC that will enable gamma radiation to be exposed only on cancer-affected organs.