Chellakere :- India Is Building a Top-Secret Nuclear City to Produce Thermonuclear Weapons

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimates that currently India has around 90 to 110 nuclear weapons while Pakistan has estimated reserves of 120 and China has around 260 nuclear weapons.
As everyone knows that India is surrounded by those countries which are equipped with nuclear weapons. So in such conditions; it seems mandatory for India to have all the arrangement for its security.

According to a news published in a US journal; India is building a top secret nuclear city at Challakere village in Chitradurga district of Karnataka. The American journal claims that the construction of this secret nuclear city began in 2012 and was likely to be completed by the end of 2017.

It become clear that India’s two secretive agencies were behind a project that experts say will be the subcontinent’s largest military-run complex of nuclear centrifuges, atomic-research laboratories, and weapons- and aircraft-testing facilities when it’s completed, probably sometime in 2017. Among the project’s aims: to expand the government’s nuclear research, to produce fuel for India’s nuclear reactors, and to help power the country’s fleet of new submarines.

This secret city is being called the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR). It is being operated by Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

The American journal published the report about the construction of the secret nuclear city by India on the basis of the image captured by the American Space Agency “NASA”. The spokeperson of the NASA said that the captured satellite image is more similar to a nuclear plant.

“According to the retired Indian government officials and independent experts sitting in London and Washington; the prime motive of India behind this secret city is to give India an extra stockpile of enriched uranium fuel that could be used in new hydrogen bombs, also known as thermonuclear weapons.”

This nuclear facility will add additional reservoir in India’s energy rich uranium fuel, which can be used in new hydrogen bombs.
Experts say that this project will include the features of the nuclear facilities, atomic research laboratories, nuclear weapons and aircraft testing. Thus the main purposes of this project are; expansion of nuclear research, the production of fuel for India’s nuclear reactors and the supply of nuclear fuel for new submarines and Nuclear power plants.

Chellaker is effectively a test bed for what  they say, a proving ground for technology and a place where technicians can practice producing the highly enriched uranium the military would need.

According to former Australian nuclear chief John Carlson, India is one of the three countries which are preparing materials for nuclear weapons; other two countries are Pakistan and North Korea.
The expansion of India’s thermonuclear program would position the country alongside the United States, United Kingdom, China Russia, France, and Israel which already have significant stockpiles of such weapons.

In the end, it is necessary to note that the Indian government has denied the fact that any such secret nuclear facility is under construction. Nothing can be said accurately about it.

But a lengthy investigation by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), including interviews with local residents, military officers, senior and retired Indian scientists connected to the nuclear program, and foreign experts and intelligence analysts have verified the existence of this secret city.

India’s close neighbors, China and Pakistan, would see this move as a provocation: Experts say they might respond by ratcheting up their own nuclear firepower. Pakistan, in particular, considers itself a military rival, having engaged in four major conflicts with India, as well as frequent border skirmishes.

New Delhi has never published a detailed account of its nuclear arsenal, which it first developed in 1974, and there has been little public notice outside India about the construction at Challakere and its strategic implications. The government has said little about it and made no public promises about how the highly enriched uranium to be produced there will be used. As a military facility, it is not open to international inspection.

Source:-  Foreign Policy