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"I think that it is guaranteed. Army should
be fully confident. There is no doubt about the
arsenal at their command," he told Karan
Thapar in an interview on the "Devil's Advocate"
programme telecast on CNN-IBN on December 14.
He was responding to a question on former Indian
Army chief V P Malik's remark that nuclear scientists
should assure the armed forces about the efficacy
of the thermo-nuclear device.
Dismissing claims made by scientists K Santhanam,
who coordinated the Pokhran II tests, and P K
Iyenger, former chairman of the AEC, that the
1998 thermo-nuclear tests of India were duds and
"erroneous," Kakodkar asserted that
the country has several hydrogen bombs with a
yield "much more" than 45 kilo tonnes,
required for making bombs.
Kakodkar asserted that the thermo-nuclear test,
the fission test and the sub-kilo tonne test "all
worked as designed", and with the results
of these tests India can build a range of systems
right up to 200 kilo tonnes.
"The yield of thermo-nuclear test was verified,
not by one method but several methods based on
different principles, done by different groups.
These have been reviewed in detail and, in fact,
I had described the tests in 1998 as perfect and
I stand by that," he said.
He refuted the argument advanced by some scientists
that India needed one more test to perfect its
thermo-nuclear deterrence.
"We are talking about a time where the knowledge
base has expanded, the capability has expanded
and you carry out a design and prove you are confident
that on the basis of that design and that test,
one can build a range of systems right up to 200
kilo tonnes," he observed.
Kakodkar, who retired as the AEC Chief on Nov
30, contended that India has several thermo-nuclear
bombs and their yield is well above 50 kilo tonnes
each.
Strongly dismissing the claim of Santhanam and
Iyengar that the yield of the thermo-nuclear test
was only 20-25 kilo tonnes and not 45 kilo tonnes,
Kakodkar reiterated that the AEC has six separate
ways of measuring the yield and they all came
to the same conclusion, i.e. 45 kilo tonnes.
Kakodkar said the DRDO seismic instruments, which
Santhanam is relying on to measure the yield,
were flawed.
"Of course," Kakodkar said when asked
whether India has a credible thermo-nuclear bomb?
"Why are you using singular? Make that plural,"
he said when Thapar asked him whether India has
a credible thermo-nuclear bomb.
Former president A P J Abdul Kalam has also defended
India's nuclear deterrence capability. He has
said the only thermo-nuclear device tested in
1998 produced the "design yield," sufficient
for producing therm-onuclear bombs.
The controversy erupted in August when Santhanam,
a former official with the Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO), told a seminar
in New Delhi that the only thermo-nuclear device
tested was a "fizzle". A test is described
as a fizzle when it fails to meet the desired
yield.
Santhanam also pitched for more nuclear tests
by India in the face of alleged pressure from
the US for India to sign Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty (CTB"). "We can't get into a
stampede to sign CTBT. We should conduct more
nuclear tests which are necessary from the point
of view of security," Santhanam said. Subsequently,
some nuclear scientists, including Iyengar, backed
Santhanam's assertions.
(IANS)
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