Operation Smiling Buddha: All About Pokhran Test that Made India Nuclear Power
Smiling Buddha: All about Pokhran test that made India a nuclear power,
46th anniversary of pokhran nuclear test observation. Celebrating anniversary of smiling buddha operation.
Editorial Staff
Operation Smiling Buddha: All About Pokhran Test that Made India Nuclear Power
The test was named ‘ Smiling Buddha ’ because it was conducted on Buddha Purnima that year, and the message conveyed by Raja Ramanna, the director of India’s premier nuclear research institute Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi also said,
“The Budda has finally smiled.” It was the first confirmed nuclear test by a nation that was not a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Though the yield of the device detonated at Pokhran is debated, it is believed that the actual yield was around 8-12 Kilotons of TNT. The highlight of the test was that India had managed to avoid detection by the United States and other intelligence agencies. But India did suffer under the sanctions imposed by industrialized nations like the US which said that such tests can lead to nuclear proliferation. India’s test came six years after the international community concluded the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968 divided the world into nuclear haves and h…
