At Trombay, the research reactors Dhruva and Apsara continued to operate satisfactorily and were utilised for basic and applied research, radioisotope production, testing of materials, and manpower training. Refurbishing work for extending the useful life of research reactor Cirus reached completion.

Radiation from radioisotopes or accelerators finds applications in the fields of industry, health care, agriculture, food preservation, and research. The DAE research centres contributing to this programme segment are BARC, VECC, CAT and BRIT.

Research reactors at Trombay produce a variety of radioisotopes and meet a major part of their demand in the country. In addition, power reactors have been equipped to produce cobalt-60, which is the source material used in radiography and other equipment. VECC at Kolkata is a major producer of accelerator-generated radioisotopes. Work on the development of industrial accelerators is being pursued at the Centre for Advanced Technologies (CAT), Indore and BARC.

BRIT is the commercial organization engaged in the manufacture and marketing of radiation and radioisotope technology based products.

Radiation polymerization, hydrology related technologies, silt-movement, soil-salinity, and leak detection by using radiotracers, are some of the technologies developed at BARC which have been benefiting industry and other vital sectors.

BARC conducted studies with cobalt-60 to track the 350 km pipe line of petroleum from Vishakhapatnam to Vijaywada, and detect the leakage points in natural gas pipeline of the Gas Authority of India. Radiotracer investigations of bed load movement near sagar dumping buoy Kolkata, and submarine out fall system, Mumbai, were done.

Gamma Scanning of Distillation and Degasser columns was carried out by BARC for two companies at Mumbai and Baroda. For assisting dredging operations in ports, a nucleonic suspended sediment concentration Gauge based on the backscattering of gamma radiation was developed at Trombay.

Over 700 consignments of iridium-192, totaling about 915 TBq ( 24,740 curies ), were supplied by BRIT in the form of sealed sources, for radiography examination of industrial components used in various industries/projects.

The radiation technology equipment supplied included 20 remotely operated radiography cameras (ROLI-1) to industrial users and 10 units of Blood Irradiator ( BI 2000 ) to blood banks.

To provide radiation sterilization service to the medical industry, BRIT operates the ISOMED plant at Trombay. The plant sterilized about 13,000 cu.mtr. of medical products. Sterilization of DAI kits and delivery packs for the rural women, and ayurvedic products for export were the notable services of ISOMED. The Plant also obtained ISO 9002 accreditation in July 2000.

BARC supplied 1200 curies of reactor medical radioisotopes, and standardized production and processing at the thera- peutic radionuclides.

The radionuclides developed during the current year, included holium-166 labelled hydroxyapatite particles for treating arthritis. BARC has also successfully developed radiation processed hydrogels. The technology of hydrogels is ready for transfer.

Skin patches for treatment of superficial cancers, Lu-EDTMP preparation for palliation of pain due to bone metastasis, phosphorus-32 incorporated stents for prevention of arterial restenosis in patients treated by angioplasty, and a number of radiolabelled preparations were other innovative products produced at Trombay.

The Radiation Medicine Centre (RMC) of BARC in Mumbai, continued to offer radiodiagnostic and treatment services.

BRIT has been producing and supplying radiopharmaceuticals and nuclear medicine products such as brachytherapy wires, radioimmunoassay (RIA) kits and others. It supplied more than 50,000 consignments of radioisotope products valued at Rs.15.25 crore for use in health care, industry, research, and agriculture. The supplies included :

Over 11,000 RIA investigations were carried out by the BRIT’s centres at Dibrugarh and Bangalore.

Nearly 11,300 kits of radioimmunoassay ( RIA & IRMA ) kits were supplied to 650 immunoassay laboratories in the country.

At BARC, the application of radiation to agriculture has so far resulted in the release of 22 improved varieties of seeds.

During the year, yellow mosaic virus resistant blackgram (Urid) variety (TU94-2) in southern zone and a soyabean variety TAMS-38 were released to farmers in Maharashtra. A highly cost effective mutant of green manure plant sesbania rostrata (TSR-1) was also generated.

Spice Plant, the radiation processing facility for spice exporters, set up by BRIT at Vashi, Navi Mumbai, processed about 350 tonnes of spices such as dried onion powder, chilli powder, black pepper, nutmug, turmeric, ranpatri powder.

Poton irradiator at Lasalgaon, near Nashik (Maharashtra), being set up by BARC to process potatoes and onions, made progress.

Other notable developments were : Recombinant DNA technology related to the development of transgenic potato, banana for production of bioactive compounds, standardization of multiplication of pine apple. Various biosorbents were also developed for the remediation of heavy metals and uranium.

In addition to achieving self-reliance in the Nuclear Power Programme, and the Research Reactor Programme - which produces a hundred varieties of isotopes for extensive use in medicine, industry and agriculture, DAE has taken confident strides in the areas of high technologies. Indigenous expertise has been developed in hi-technologies such as accelerators, lasers, computers, robots, automation and others. BARC, IGCAR, CAT and VECC are the research & development nodes in these areas.