INDIA’S PRIDE ‘CIRUS’ SHUTDOWN

REACTOR SHUT DOWN

THE CIRUS REACTOR WAS SHUT DOWN PERMANENTLY ON FRIDAY MIDNIGHT i.e. ON 31st DEC 2010.

THIS 40 MW REACTOR, OPERATING AT A CAPACITY FACTOR OF 50-80% WAS PRODUCING 6.5-10.5 Kg OF PLUTONIUM PER YEAR AND USED NATURAL URANIUM FUEL WHILE USING HEAVY-WATER(DEUTERIUM) AS A MODERATOR (a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons and turning them into thermal neutrons which are capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction) PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE FIRST NUCLEAR TEST IN POKHRAN-I (codenamed SMILING BUDDHA) IN 1974.

THE FIRST NUCLEAR CHAIN REACTION (CRITICALITY) WAS ATTAINED ON 10th JULY 1960.

THE CIRUS (CANADA INDIA REACTOR UTILITY SERVICES) WAS AN ICONIC SYMBOL OF INDIA’S INDIGENOUS NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMME FOR CIVIL AND MILITARY. THE PLUTONIUM FROM ITS SPENT FUEL WAS USED AS A PART OF STRATEGIC NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMME OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ATOMIC ENERGY. THE BARC (BHABHA ATOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE) MAINTAINS THAT URANIUM FUEL WHICH IT PROCURED INDEGENOUSLY HAS BEEN FULLY UTILISED BY SLOWLY DRAINING OUT OF HEAVY WATER IN THE MODERATOR. HOWEVER, THE PUMPS STILL CONTINUE TO RUN TO REMOVE THE DECAY HEAT AND ALL OTHER PROCESSES TO REMOVE THE RESIDUAL HEAT FROM THE CORE FO THE REACTOR WILL BE KEPT OPERATIONAL FOR SOME MORE TIME, PROBABLY UPTO ONE YEAR. AFTER DECONTAMINATION, THE REACTOR WILL NOT BE DEOMMISSIONED AND WILL BE USED FOR STUDENTS’ TRAINING. ALSO A PLAN TO CONVERT IT INTO A NEUTRON PRODUCING SYSTEM FOR SUB-CRITICAL EXPERIMENTS IS ON THE ANVIL. THIS FIFTY YEAR OLD NUCLEAR REACTOR, COULD HAVE LIVED FOR TWENTY MORE YEARS, WAS SHUT DOWN IN SEPTEMBER 1997, REFURBISHED, AND RESUMED IN 2005(SCHEDULED TO RESUME IN 2003), BEFORE PERMANENTLY SHUTTING IT DOWN.

Milind Phadke

+919890317557

NOSTALGIC RBI MOVE

NOSTALGIC RBI MOVE

AN ICONIC DECISION BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MAY HURT MANY SENTIMENTS FROM JUNE THE 30th, 2011.

THE COINS OF VALUE DENOMINATION 1-(ONE) PAISE, 2-(TWO) PAISE, 3-(THREE) PAISE, 5-(FIVE) PAISE, 10-(TEN) PAISE, 20(TWENTY) PAISE AND 25(TWENTY-FIVE) PAISE WILL NO LONGER BE A VALID DENOMINATION.

EVEN THOUGH THESE COINS VANISHED LONG TIME AGO, WHATEVER COINS WERE MINTED AND WERE IN CIRCULATION WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED IN TRANSACTIONS. THE MINTING OF THESE COINS WAS STOPPED BECAUSE; THE COST OF MINTING THEM WAS MORE THAN THEIR FACE VALUE. NOW THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA HAS DECIDED TO WITHDRAW THEM FROM CIRCULATION ALTOGETHER AND WILL CEASE TO BE A LEGAL TENDER IN THE COUNTRY AND THE MINIMUM DENOMINATION COIN THAT WILL BE ACCEPTED AS A LEAGL TRANSACTION WILL BE 50-(FIFTY) PAISE COIN. ALSO THESE DENOMINATIONS (1,2,3,5,10,20,25 PAISE) WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED FOR PAYEMNT ON ACCOUNT i.e. THE ENTRIES IN BOOKS OF ACCOUNTS, PRICING OF PRODUCTS, TAXES, SERVICES ETC. WILL BE ROUNDED OFF TO FIFTY PAISE OR WHOLE RUPEE FROM THE DATE THE PROCEDURE FOR CALL-IN WOULD BE NOTOFIED BY THE RBI. THE FINANCE MINISTRY HAS REALLY WIPED OUT WHATEVER LITTLE VALUE THESE COINS HAD. NOW NOBODY CAN CALL AS ‘CHAVANNI CHAAP’; AS THIS WILL ALSO BECOME HISTORY.

Milind Phadke

+919890317557

WELCOME 2011

WELCOME-2011

GREETINGS

I WHOLE HEARTEDLY WISH TO ALL THE READERS OF MY BLOG A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011.

ANOTHER YEAR AND ANOTHER CHANCE TO GIVE A NEW START TO OUR LIVES. THIS TIME LEAP OVER OLD BARRIERS TO HAVE A REAL BREAKTHROUGH.
MAY GOD BLESS US ALL WITH A LOT OF HAPPINESS, JOY, PROSPERITY, SUCCESS, AND ABOVE ALL PEACE (WHICH ENTIRE MANKIND IS IN SEARCH OF).
THE WORDS BRIGHT, BLISSFULL, MINDBLOWING, TERRIFIC, EXTREMELY, GREAT HAS NO MEANING, IF THERE IS NO PEACE.

THE YEAR 2011 IS UNIQUE IN MANY WAYS. LOOK OUT HERE :-

1-1-11, 11-1-11, 1-11-11, 11-11-11, 9-10-11, 13-12-11, 7-9-11, 5-8-11, 3-7-11, 1-6-11.

AND WHAT MORE, THIS YEAR IS A REPEATITION OF YEAR 2005—WATCH THE DAYS AND DATES MATCH EXACTLY.
EARLIER A ONE NUMBER IN ITS DATE MONTH AND YEAR WAS 4 TIMES IN 2001, WHEREAS IT IS 6 TIMES IN 2011. THIS COMBINATION OF DATE MONTH AND YEAR COMES ONCE IN A CENTURY. NEXT TIME IT WILL BE AFTER 100 YEARS IN 2111. THIS IS THE UNIQUENESS OF THE YEAR 2011.

NAGPUR-WEATHER

PLEASE REFER TO MY EARLIER BLOG DATED 21 DEC 2010. THE MERCURY BEHAVED EXACTLY AS I HAD MENTIONED.
THE S-WLIES IN THE LOWER LEVELS WILL BRING IN SOME AMOUNT OF MOISTURE WITH R.H. IN THE RANGE OF 50 TO 80%. WITH SLP DECREASING TO 1008 mb ON 31ST DEC 2010 (1015 mb ON 30TH DEC 2010) A SMALL AMOUNT OF MOISTURE SEEMS TO BE CREEPING IN. THUS, 29TH WILL BE MAINLY CLOUDY 30TH WILL BE PARTLY CLOUDY TILL 31ST EVENING. AS THE YEAR END BASH STARTS THE CLOUDS WILL GROW (ACCUMULATE) IN NUMBER AND WILL GIVE MAINLY CLOUDY WELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR 2011. ABOUT 30% CHANCES OF SHOWERS ON 31ST LATE NIGHT/01ST EARLY MORNING (A DROP OR TWO IS EXPECTED).THE TOTAL PRECIPITATION AVAILABLE IN THE SYSTEM MAY NOT EXCEED 2 mm. THAT MEANS, BY THE TIME THE NEW-YEAR PARTY ENDS, ONE MAY FIND THEIR SEAT COVERS ON THE MOTORCYCLES IN A DAMP CONDITION, THAT’S IT.
THE MINIMUM TEMP ON 30TH WOULD BE AROUND 12 DEG CEL AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE IN THE TEENS. A DAY FULL OF CLOUDING WILL GIVE ENOUGH WARMTH AND BID A TEARFULL ADIEU TO 2010. THE NEW YEAR WILL SEE THE MIN TEMP RAISED TO ABOUT 19 DEG CEL, A STRAIGHT RISE OF ABOUT 6 TO 8 DEG IN TWO DAYS. ON 02 JAN 2011 THE MIN TEMP WILL AGAIN FALL BY AROUND 5 DEG, OWING TO CLEAR SKIES AND WINDS TURNING N-WLY, BRINGING IN SOME COLD. TO SAY GOOD-BYE TO 2010 A BREEZE OF ABOUT 12 Kmph ON 31ST WILL ALSO BE PRESENT.
SEE YOU HALE AND HEARTY IN THE NEXT YEAR 2011 WITH LATEST WEATHER UPDATES AND MANY MORE.

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011.

Milind Phadke

+919890317557

THE FAILURE OF GSLV BY ISRO

A VERY TRAGIC INCIDENCE HAPPENED ON 25TH DEC 2010. THE GSAT-5P COMMUNICATION SATELLITE ON BOARD GSLV-F06 ROCKET HAD TO BE DESTROYED IN LESS THAN TWO MINS AFTER LIFT OFF FROM SHRIHARIKOTA. THIS IS A MAJOR SET BACK TO INDIA’S AMBITIOUS SPACE PROGRAMME. THE MISSION COPNTROL ROOM AT ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) LOOKED GLOOMY AS THE MISSION FAILED TO LAUNCH THE HOME GROWN SATELLITE. THE LAUNCHER ROCKET (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle ) WAS FITTED WITH RUSSIAN MADE CRYOGENIC ENGINE. The GSLV IS A THREE-STAGE VEHICLE, WITH THE FIRST CORE STAGE POWERED BY SOLID PROPELLANTS, FOUR STRAP-ON MOTORS AROUND THE CORE STAGE, WHICH ARE FUELLED BY LIQUID PROPELLANTS, THE SECOND STAGE PROPELLED BY LIQUID PROPELLANTS AND THE THIRD TOPMOST STAGE USES CRYOGENIC PROPELLANTS. ISRO HAS TAKEN SEVEN LAUNCHES AND FOUR OF THEM HAVE FAILED. THE INDIA’S AMBITION OF ENTERING THE MARKET FOR HEAVY SATELLITE LAUNCHES IS GREATLY HURT. THE TRANSPONDER AUGUMENTATION FOR CONTINUANCE OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND TELECASTING SERVICES MAY NOT HAVE AFFECT BUT IT WOULD HAVE SURELY GIVEN A BOOST TO THE COMMUNICATION AS THE GSAT-5P WAS DESIGNED TO CARRY 24 C-BAND AND 12-EXTENDED C-BAND TRANSPONDERS. ‘THE HINDU’ REPORTS AS FOLLOWS:-
The very first flight in March 2001 was aborted one second before the lift-off because one of the four strap-on booster motors around the core first stage did not develop adequate thrust. So the computer aboard the rocket aborted the flight. Indian Space Research Organisation's rocket engineers solved the problem in less than a month and the flight took place on April 18, 2001. But the Russian cryogenic stage atop the vehicle underperformed and the satellite GSAT-1 was put in lower orbit than targeted. So the ISRO had to fire the liquid apogee booster motor on board the satellite more than needed to put the vehicle in the geo-synchronous orbit. Thus precious fuel was lost and the satellite ultimately came down in its orbit. The mission ended in failure. The next two GSLV flights were a big success and they put their satellites in orbit. But the flight of the GSLV-F02 on July 10, 2010, with INSAT-4C, ended in failure because of a manufacturing defect in one of the components of four strap-on booster motors. The vehicle was destroyed in mid-flight by the Range Safety Officer and its debris fell into the sea. The ISRO salvaged some parts of the vehicle from the Bay of Bengal. The third failure took place on April 15, 2010 when the GSLV-D3 did not put GSAT-4 in orbit. This flight had raised a lot of hopes because it carried an indigenous cryogenic engine. It did not succeed due to the failure of the fuel booster turbo pump in the Indian cryogenic upper stage. There were two reasons for this failure — gripping at one of the seal locations and seizure of rotor rupture of turbine casing caused probably by excessive rise in pressure and temperature. The GSLV-F06 flight on Saturday has also ended in failure because a command to control the vehicle did not reach the actuator in the first stage of the vehicle. This vehicle carried a Russian cryogenic stage in the third topmost stage. After a delay of five days, because of leak of helium gas from one of the valves in the Russian cryogenic stage, the GSLV-F06 finally took off on Saturday. While it cost Rs. 175 crore to build the GSLV-F06, for the GSAT-5P it cost Rs. 150 crore.