CIRUS (Canada India Reactor Utility Services)[1][2][3] was a research reactor at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) in Trombay near Mumbai, India. CIRUS was supplied by Canada in 1954, but used heavy water (deuterium oxide) supplied by the United States. It was the second nuclear reactor to be built in India.
It was modeled on the Canadian Chalk River National Research X-perimental (NRX) reactor.[4] The 40 MW reactor used natural uranium fuel, while using heavy water as a moderator.[5] It is a tank reactor type with a core size of 3.14 m (H) × 2.67 m (D). It first went critical July 10, 1960.[5]
The reactor was not under IAEA safeguards (which did not exist when the reactor was sold), although Canada stipulated, and the U.S. supply contract for the heavy water explicitly specified, that it only be used for peaceful purposes. Nonetheless, CIRUS produced some of India's initial weapons-grade plutonium stockpile,[6] as well as the plutonium for India's 1974 Pokhran-I (Codename Smiling Buddha) nuclear test, the country's first nuclear test.[7] At a capacity factor of 50–80%, CIRUS can produce 6.6–10.5 kg of plutonium a year.
CIRUS was shut down in September 1997 for refurbishment and was scheduled to resume operation in 2003. The reactor was brought back into operation two years late in 2005. During refurbishing, a low-temperature vacuum evaporation-based desalination unit was also coupled to the reactor to serve as demonstration of using waste heat from a research reactor for sea desalination. Even if the reactor has a life of twenty more years, India had declared that this reactor would be shut down by 2010 in accordance with the Indo-US nuclear accord reached between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W. Bush.[7] The reactor was shut down on 31 December 2010.[8]
^"50-Yr Old Research N-Reactor CIRUS Shut Down". Outlook.
^"Research N-reactor CIRUS to shutdown permanently on December 31". DNA. 18 December 2010.
^Evans, Brian L. (2013). The Remarkable Chester Ronning: Proud Son of China. University of Alberta. p. 189. ISBN 9780888646637. Canada India Reactor Utility Services.
^"Canadian-Indian Reactor, U.S." NTI. Archived from the original on 17 February 2016. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
^ ab"Cirus reactor". Bhabha Atomic Research Center. Archived from the original on 9 July 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
^Exporting Disaster ~ The Cost of Selling CANDU Reactors (3). Ccnr.org. Retrieved on 2013-12-06.
^ abGopal, Neena (2006-07-03). "PM to announce Cirus reactor shutdown". Gulfnews. Archived from the original on 19 October 2008. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
^"Research N-reactor CIRUS to shutdown [sic] permanently on December 31". DNAIndia. 2010-12-18.
CIRUS (Canada India Reactor Utility Services) was a research reactor at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) in Trombay near Mumbai, India. CIRUS...
certification as other reactors. The plutonium for India's first nuclear detonation, Operation Smiling Buddha in 1974, was produced in a CIRUSreactor supplied by...
"Canada-India Colombo Plan Atomic Reactor Project." Under the terms of the agreement, Canada would provide a 40 MW CIRUSreactor for solely research purposes...
Apsara reactor – Asia's first nuclear reactor. 1 MW, pool type, light water moderated, enriched uranium fuel supplied by France CIRUSreactor – 40 MW...
with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). A CIRUS nuclear reactor given by Canada and heavy water (used as a neutron moderator) supplied...
the Apsaras), CIRUS (1960; the "Canada-India Reactor" with assistance from the US), the now-defunct ZERLINA (1961; Zero Energy Reactor for Lattice Investigations...
water overflowed from the reactor core in 1985 following vibration problems. Designed as a larger version of the CIRUSreactor, Dhruva was an Indian designed...
distinction and difference from the India's nuclear research reactors such as CIRUS and Dhruva reactors that uses the same CANDU technology. The decision-making...
explosion. The test used plutonium produced in the Canadian-supplied CIRUSreactor, and raised concerns that nuclear technology supplied for peaceful purposes...
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). The BARC operates CIRUS, a 40 MW nuclear research reactor at their facility in Trombay. Mumbai Veterinary College...
would help the Indian government build a heavy-water research reactor, the CIRUSreactor, for "peaceful purposes". When Egyptian President Gamal Abdel...
the field of neutron scattering for condensed matter research. The CIRUSreactor, based on this design, was built in India. It was ultimately used to...
that uses an isotope of thorium, 232 Th , as the fertile material. In the reactor, 232 Th is transmuted into the fissile artificial uranium isotope 233 U...
Hahn-Meitner-Institut Hungary KFKI Research Institutes, Budapest India Dhruva, CIRUS and Apsara: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai KAMINI Indonesia Neutron...
CIRUS research reactor built by AECL in 1956, which was a commercial version of its NRX research reactor. In addition AECL built two power reactors in...
Energy as the Head of Reactor Group and worked there till 1961. During this period, he also served as the project manager of CIRUSreactor from 1958 to 1961...
the original on 23 January 2016. Retrieved 5 December 2013. "CIRUS and DHRUVA Reactors, Trombay". Global Security. Archived from the original on 26 January...
weapons program, dubbed CIRUS (Canada-India Reactor, United States). Canada sold India the reactor on the condition that the reactor and any by-products would...
atomic bomb with plutonium made from a commercial version of the NRX reactor, CIRUS, built in Bombay by AECL in 1956. As a result, the government of Canada...
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