Uranium
About this ebook
One immediate concern when the government negotiated bilateral agreements with other nuclear powers was with their political and strategic dimensions. Inevitably, a broad appreciation of the basic scientific and technological aspects of nuclear energy eluded these discussions. This book fills this knowledge gap in an important manner.
The authors provide a refreshingly dispassionate assessment of the Indian nuclear reality. They underscore the extremely limited availability of Uranium resources and the far from optimal quality of the material, relative to international standards. This important aspect was hardly addressed in the main debate, which was driven by the need to project India’s case for economic growth and energy self-sufficiency. This scenario also exerts a strong bearing upon the future of the Indian nuclear programme, in particular, the country’s continued dependence on Uranium imports from the world’s nuclear powers. Further, the authors offer a scientific and threadbare analysis of the implications of radiation – an area that has pitted the nuclear establishment against environmental groups.
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About the author
Shri T.K.S.Murthy obtained a postgraduate degree in Chemistry from the Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. His professional career started when he joined the Atomic Energy Commission in 1950. During the early part of his career, Mr. Murthy’s focus was on chemical analysis of atomic minerals like beryllium, uranium, rare-earths, etc. He subsequently turned his attention to the development of processes for the extraction of uranium from its ores. He was closely associated with R&D on the chemical processing of uranium ore obtained from Jaduguda, Jharkhand to recover the ‘yellow-cake.’ The Department of Atomic Energy opened its first uranium mine and established a processing industrial unit at this site. Till recently it has been the only source of nuclear fuel for power reactors in the country.
In the 1960s, Mr. Murthy had the opportunity to visit and observe the processes followed in a few uranium mills in France and the U.S.A. In 1970s he initiated research on the recovery of uranium as a by-product from phosphoric acid, an industrial product for fertilizer manufacture.
His other interests were in the application of solvent extraction for separation and purification of metals. He took an active part in the development of processes for the separation of Rare Earth elements from monazite sands. For this work he collaborated with Indian Rare Earths Limited.
Mr. Murthy was author and co-author of four books and a number of technical papers.
He retired from BARC as Head, Uranium Extraction Division, and Director, Chemical Engineering Group. After his retirement, Mr. Murthy was a consultant for Indian Rare Earths Limited, and subsequently received the Life-time Achievement Award from the Rare Earths Association of India.
Mr. Murthy was an inspiring teacher and mentor, who left a team of highly dedicated students to pursue research in a scientific arena of national importance.
