Address: Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC)
Trombay, Mumbai 400 085
Telephone: 91-22-2555151, 91-22-5505010
Fax: 91-22-25505151, 91-22-5519613
Email: webmaster@magnum.barc.ernet.in
Director: Shri B. Bhattacharjee
Subordinate to: Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)
Size: Pilot-scale uranium enrichment plant
Primary Function: Produce weapons-grade or low-enriched uranium

Description and Activities:
The Uranium Enrichment Plant was developed in Trombay during the early 1980s while India was acquiring centrifuge technology. The facility was completed in 1985 as a pilot-scale ultracentrifuge plant. Enriched uranium from this facility was later fabricated into fuel for the CIRUS and Dhruva nuclear reactors. In 1990, a larger uranium enrichment facility, the Rare Materials Project, began operating at Mysore.

As of the early 1990s, the Uranium Enrichment Plant was operating 100 gas centrifuges. The facility reportedly has the capacity to produce two kilograms of weapons-grade uranium per year. It is not under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

Key Sources: Arunkumar Bhatt, "New BARC chief assumes charge," The Hindu (Chennai), 4 April 2001, http://www.hindu.com/2001/04/04/stories/0204000f.htm; DAE (Government of India), "Annual Report 1985-1986"; DAE (Government of India), "Annual Report 2001-2002," Executive Summary available at <http://www.dae.gov.in/ar2002/ar2002.htm>; David Albright and Mark Hibbs, "India's Silent Bomb," Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, http://www.bullatomsci.org/issues/1992/s92/s92.albright.html; "India: Nuclear Infrastructure," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, <http://www.ceip.org/programs/npp/india2.htm>; "India and Pakistan: Nuclear Capabilities," Pakistan Alert Network, <http://www.pakalert.net/articles/nuke_cap.asp>; Nicholas Berry, "Building the Indian Bomb," Center for Defense Information, 19 May 1998, <http://www.cdi.org/issues/testing/inbombfct.html>; "Organization," Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), 19 February 2003, <http://www.barc.ernet.in/webpages/organization/barc_organization.html>.

	Updated September 2003