INDIA'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS CAPABILITY

Until the detonation of three nuclear tests on 11 May 1998 and the two on 13th May India has previously conducted one underground nuclear test of 12 kilotonnes at Pokhran in the Rajasthan desert in 1974 (at the time this was very much seen as a response to China's first test in 1964).

In 1960 India was supplied with a Canadian nuclear reactor plus nuclear fuel by Canada and the USA. US and French companies helped to build a pilot scale nuclear reprocessing plant which began separating plutonium in 1966. Plutonium extracted from the first reactor's spent fuel was used in the 1974 test. Neither facility was under full international safeguards. The US and Canada supplied a further four reactors in the 1960s.

France assisted with the construction of a large nuclear reprocessing plant between 1973-1978 at Tarapur, and supplied India with uranium from 1983-1993. The former Soviet Union supplied heavy water to India's Rajasthan reactors.

India has now developed a uranium enrichment plant and has 10 nuclear reactors. In 1985 India commissioned the Djurva reactor which produces about 2.5 kg of plutonium per year. In 1986 India's Prefre reprocessing plant began separating plutonium from the unsafeguarded Madras facility.

India is estimated to have a plutonium production capability of around 75-200 kg per year which is 5-10 times more than required for its nuclear power and nuclear research programme.

India has also developed delivery systems capable of carrying nuclear weapons. In the 1960s the USA supplied India with basic rocket technology. In 1992 India purchased three liquid fuelled missile engines and associated technology from Russia. India has also undertaken several missile tests of the Agni long range ballistic missile (range 2500km) and the shorter range Prithvi missile (250km).

India also has an active nuclear submarine programme. India leased a Soviet "Charlie" class submarine in 1988 and by 1992 had their own submarine project under development based on the Soviet design but using an Indian pressurised water reactor. The reactor requires weapons-grade fissile material and thus poses a proliferation risk. To date, every country that has a nuclear powered submarine has developed them into platforms for sea-launched nuclear weapons.

The Indian nuclear submarine programme is run by the Indian Navy and the Atomic Energy Department. It is paralleled by the development of a sea-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). Work started in Bangalore in 1992 on the Sagarika SLBM, a variant of the ground-launched Prithvi missile, which is planned to have a range of 300km and to be smaller than the Prithvi.