India's nuclear 'fizzle' kicks up toxic row

A claim by a leading Indian scientist that one of India's nuclear weapons tested in 1998 "fizzled" has unsettled the military here and opened fresh debate about the need for more trials. The tests under the then-Hindu nationalist government sparked outrage the world over and drew sanctions, but were declared a success and are credited with propelling India to the status of full-fledged nuclear-armed state.
India has still not signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), but any further tests have been ruled out by the Congress party-led government, which has also acclaimed the tests a complete success. "Two things are clear: that India should not sign the CTBT and that it needs more thermonuclear device tests," K. Santhanam, the co-ordinator of the tests in 1998, told a newspaper on August 27.
He went on to spark the storm by labelling the blast from the thermonuclear device a "fizzle" and has since refused to elaborate or speak to the media. AFP made repeated attempts to contact to him.
India tested five nuclear devices on May 11 and 13, 1998, including the thermonuclear bomb that Santhanam said released less energy than the government's claim of a yield equal to 45 kilotons of TNT high explosives. The effects of the first three simultaneous underground blasts, which included a 15-kiloton device and a plutonium bomb, measured 5.3 on the Richter scale at overseas seismic monitoring centres - the size of a moderate earthquake.
Even though no one doubts the capability of India to deploy a nuclear weapon and despite the government's reassurances, the uncertainty has upset some and is being used by others to promote a pro-testing agenda. "Our armed forces need to be satisfied with what is given to us," former Indian army chief general V.P. Malik said, echoing the views of several other serving officers who spoke to AFP off the record. "The ability to produce nuclear weapons or to deliver them are not in doubt but what is in doubt is the yield of these weapons systems," Malik told AFP.
Malik, who was at the military helm during the 1998 tests, said New Delhi owed an explanation to the military. Homi Sethna, who steered India's maiden nuclear weapons test in 1974, backed Santhanam. "I stand by Santhanam's statement that India needs to conduct more nuclear tests," the octogenarian nuclear scientist said.