UK, India collaborate on civil nuclear research

A workshop at Oxford, between top nuclear scientists from India and Britain has drawn up a shortlist of research projects that includes smart monitoring and control systems, waste management and public engagement.

A workshop at Oxford, between top nuclear scientists from India and Britain has drawn up a shortlist of research projects that includes smart monitoring and control systems, waste management and public engagement.

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The meeting, held last week over two days, was part of the UK-India collaboration on civil nuclear research. The Indian side was represented by six members from the Babha Atomic Research Centre and the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research.

Official sources said the discussions at the Phase III workshop described as “intensive” were geared towards areas such as new reactor design (from a safety perspective), public understanding of nuclear safety, and others building upon from projects of Phase I and II.

UK-India collaboration on civil nuclear research began in 2010 and since then, 12 research projects had been initiated with funding from the Research Councils UK and India’s Department of Atomic Energy, which have contributed 4.7 million pounds each.

The outputs from the six projects initiated in Phase I (2010) included 18 joint publications, 15 conference/workshop contributions, and an online proliferation resistance assessment tool jointly developed by the University of Cambridge and BARC.