BARC laboratory fire, Two killed

by D.S.Rajput | December 29, 2009 at 08:38 pm

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New Delhi: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre chemical lab caught fire in Trombay near Mumbai on Tuesday leaving two persons dead but there is no threat of any radioactive leak. The process of identification of the victims is on and it is suspected that they could be students. Sources at the BARC said that the fire broke out in the chemical lab on the third floor of the Modular lab at the BARC. The Fire Brigade and police are yet to ascertain the cause of the blaze.

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's primary nuclear research facility. It has a number of nuclear reactors, all of which are used for India's nuclear power and research programme.

BARC was started in 1954, as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET), and became India's primary nuclear research centre, taking over charge of most nuclear scientists that were at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. After Homi J. Bhabha's death in 1966, the centre was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. The first reactors at BARC and its affiliated power generation centres were imported from the west. India's first power reactors, installed at the Tarapur Atomic Power Plant (TAPP) were from the United States.