Amongst our Indian scientists who continuously endeavour on placing Bharat in the forefront of using Atomic energy for peace time employment and defence time deployment, Dr.P K Iyengar (Padmanhan Krishnagopalan Iyengar) occupies a pride of place. His remembernce day falls on 21st December.
Born 1931 in Thirunelveli, TN, Dr. P. K. Iyengar joined the Department of Atomic Energy in his 21st year as a young research scientist. In his career spanning nearly 60 years, he excelled not just in pure research but also in its large scale usage.
In the sixties he turned to the design of India’s first plutonium fast-reactor, PURNIMA, and commissioned it in 1972. In 1974 he conducted the Peaceful Nuclear Explosion code named “Smiling Budhdha” at Pokharan. For these successful efforts, he was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 1975.
His contribution was there in the Pokharan-II nuclear explosion, code named “Shakthi-98”.He was the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in 1984 and later was appointed Chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary to the Department of Atomic Energy in 1990.
He was in-charge of the constructed and commisioned India’s first plutonium reactor “DHRUVA” in Trombay. Later under his guidance two new power reactors were commissioned at Narora and Kakrapar.
He continued with the development of new reactor systems, such as liquid-sodium based fast reactors. He also initiated proposals for the export of heavy-water, research reactors, hardware for nuclear applications, etc., to earn precious foreign exchange.He motivated basic research in fields ranging from molecular biology, to chemistry and material science.
He established a “Technology Transfer Centre” for converting research results into large scale Industrial production.He opposed the waiver granted to India by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to conduct nuclear commerce because it was more of a victory for the United States than an Indian win.
In his long career Dr. Iyengar has been the recipient of many awards and honours. He founded the “Agastya International Foundation” and was focusing on rural education.As a scientist who worked tirelessly until his demise in his 80th year, the contributions of Dr. P K Iyeagar will find a permanent place in the annals of indian Atomic Energy.
Surprsingly, what was proclaimed last fortnight by USA as it having been tested the atomic fusion energy in its laboratories was originally pioneered by Dr P.K (as cold fusion) in his experiments in the 1980s to prove the hypothesis that nuclear fusion can occur at ordinary temperatures under certain scenarios. The experiments were discontinued after Iyengar’s exit from the nuclear establishment by some conservative scientists.
–R.NANDHA KUMAR
