“INS ARIHANT” INDIA’s First Nuclear Submarine

India launched its first nuclear-powered submarine in a ceremony in southern port city of Vishakhapatnam 0n 26 July 2009, becoming one of just six nations in the world to have successfully built one. The 367-foot long INS Arihant, which means “Destroyer of the Enemies” in Hindi according to the official news release. The name Arihant has its origins in the Jain religion, and unofficial news reports stating “Destroyer of Enemies” omitting the definite article. India became the sixth country in the world to have built one. Besides the US, which has 74 nuclear submarines, Russia (45), UK (13), France (10) and China (10) also possess nuclear-powered submarines – the US has nearly as many nuclear submarines as all other countries combined.

India is a nation that struggled to enter the select group of countries that build nuclear powered submarines. Its program ATV, or Advanced Technology Vessel, was initiated in 1974. But after three decades it had not presented results that could modify the current picture of the navies with nuclear propulsion.

The INS Arihant, India’s first nuclear submarine that was till now known by the code name S 2, was launched at a simple ceremony in the port town of Visakhapatnam [Vizac] with the traditional breaking of a coconut on its hull by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s wife, Gursharan Kaur. It was expected to be ready for induction into the Navy by 2011 after a series of exhaustive trials.

The launch ceremony was attended by the prime Minister. Dr. Manmohan Singh, accompanied by Smt. Gursharan Kaur, Raksha Mantri Shri.AK Antony, Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Dr. YS Rajasekhar Reddy, Raksha Rajya Mantri Shri MM Pallam Raju, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Smt. D Purandareswari, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta and high ranking officials from the Navy, Department of Atomic Energy, and Defence Research and Development Organisation.

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On this occasion, the Prime Minister congratulated the Director General of the ATV (Advanced Technology vehicle) Program Vice Admiral DSP Verma (Retd) and all personnel associated with it for achieving this historic milestone in the country’s defence preparedness. He noted that they had overcome several hurdles and barriers to enable the country to acquire self reliance in the most advanced areas of defence technology. The Prime Minister made a special mention of the cooperation extended by Russia. The Prime Minister stated that the Government is fully committed to ensuring the Defence of our national interests and the protection of our territorial integrity. The Government would render all support to the constant modernization of our defence forces and to ensuring that they remain at the cutting edge of technology.

The project director, Vice Admiral (retd) D S P Verma, said that the Arihant is a 6,000-tonne submarine with a length of 110 meters and a breadth of 11 meters. The length is about 10 percent longer than previously published estimates, while the 11 meter beam is much less than the 15 meters of previous un-offcial estimates. Experts say the vessel will be able to carry 12 K 15 submarine launched ballistic missiles that have a range of over 700 km. The Indian nuclear powered attack submarine design was said in some reports to have a 4,000-ton displacement and a single-shaft nuclear power plant of Indian origin. By other accounts it would be 9,400 tons displacement when submerged and 124 meters long.

The MoD/PMO decided not to release any photographs of the submarine, and no filming or photography by the media was permitted inside the Matsya Dock. One report stated that the submarine was visibly based on the Russian Borei-class SSBN, and claimed that the official invitation had a silhouette of the submarine indicating that it’s almost definitely based on the Borei. But the 935 Borei has a length of 170 meters (580 feet), a beam of 13 meters (42 feet), and a displacement of 11,750-12,250 tons Surfaced and 17,000 tons Submerged.

India has been working actively since 1985 to develop an indigenously constructed nuclear-powered submarine, one that was possibly based on elements of the Soviet Charlie II-class design, detailed drawings of which are said to have been obtained from the Soviet Union in 1989. This project illustrates India’s industrial capabilities and weaknesses. The secretive Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project to provide nuclear propulsion for Indian submarines has been one of the more ill-managed projects of India.With the participation of involved Russian scientists and technician in the diverse phases of the program, came the possibility of that the first Indian submarine with nuclear propulsion can be operational in 2009, having been launched in 2006-2007.

Although India has the capability of building the hull and developing or acquiring the necessary sensors, its industry had been stymied by several system integration and fabrication problems in trying to downsize a 190 MW pressurized water reactor (PWR) to fit into the space available within the submarine’s hull. The Proto-type Testing Centre (PTC) at the Indira Gandhi Centre For Atomic Research. Kalpakkam, was used to test the submarine’s turbines and propellers. A similar facility is operational at Vishakapatnam to test the main turbines and gear box.

In 1998, L&T began fabricating the hull of ATV but the struggle with the reactor continued. After BARC designs failed, India bought reactor designs from Russia. By 2004 the reactor had been built, tested on land at the IGCAR and had gone critical. Its modest size, around 6,000 tons (the Ohio class SSBN in the movie Crimson Tide weighs over 14,000 tons), led experts to call it a “baby boomer”.

India had ample experience building Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) using natural un-enriched uranium as fuel, and heavy water as moderator and coolant. But this was the first time that India has built a PWR that used enriched uranium as fuel, and light water as both coolant and moderator. The electrical power reactors that India would be importing (potentially from Russia, France, and the US) would also be PWRs with enriched uranium as fuel, and light water as both coolant and moderator. Naval nuclear reactors typically use uranium that is enriched to much higher levels than is the case with shore-based power reactors.

While the present project reportedly ends at three units, defence officials have not ruled out building larger submarines on the basis of national strategic imperatives. These have changed since the conception of the project. By the time the first unit was launched in July 2009, the construction of the hull for the next one was reportedly already underway at the Larson and Toubro (L&T) facility at Hazira where the first hull was built. The cost of the three submarines was reported at over Rs3,000 crore, over US$600,000,000 [the Indian numbering system is denominated in Crore 1,00,00,000 and Lakhs 1,00,000, so Rs3,000 crore is Rs30,000,000,000, or US$623,104,807.77 the day INS Arihant was launched]. Another report said that the first submarine alone had cost Rs. 14,000 Crore [$US2.9 billion]. In April 2006, the larger American Virginia-class subs were priced at $2.4 billion apiece, at which time the goal was to cut the program’s cost to about $2 billion per sub. The $2 billion figure is a baseline expressed in fiscal 2005 dollars. As of late 2008 the Procurement Cost for the first three units of the British Astute class SSN was forecast at £3,806 M (outturn prices) [US$6,275 B at 2009 conversion rates], for a unit cost of about US$2.1 billion.

The three submarines would be based at a facility being developed at Rambilli close to Vishakpatnam, where hundreds of acres of land had already been acquired. The Indian Navy hoped to commission the base by 2011 in time for INS Arihant’s commissioning, and two of these submarines would be at sea at any given time while the third would be in maintenance at the base. Other reports claim that India plans to build a fleet of five nuclear-powered submarines. On report in 2009 stated that the government had given clearance for the construction of much bigger SSBNs, nuclear-powered submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles, each of them costing about $2 billion (approximately Rs 10,000 crore each). This would take off once the three Arihant class submarines were ready.

By 2004 it was reported that the first ATV would be launched by 2007. At that time it was reported that it would be an SSGN and displacing some 6,500 tons, with a design derivative of Russia’s Project 885 Severodvinsk-class (Yasen) SSN. The ATV multirole platform would be employed for carrying out long-distance interdiction and surveillance of both submerged targets as well as principal surface combatants. It would also facilitate Special Forces operations by covertly landing such forces ashore. The ATV pressure hull will be fabricated with the HY-80 steel obtained from Russia.

This would have the possibility of multiple performance: it could use missiles of cruise of average reach (1,000 km), ballistic missiles of short reach (300 km), torpedoes and mines, besides participating of operations special.

The ATV is said to be a modified Akula-I class submarine. The Russian Akula-2 and Yasen are also modified Akula-1. By this line of reasoning the ATV would be in league of Yasen, so the ATV would be 6500 tons light, 8500 tons armed and surfaced and 10000 tons submerged. It would be the biggest and heaviest combat naval vessel built in India to date.

The 100-member crew, which will man the submarine, was trained at an indigenously-developed simulator in the School for Advanced Underwater Warfare (SAUW) at the naval base in Vizag. Hands-on training will be done on the INS Chakra, a 12,000-tonne Akula-II class nuclear-powered attack submarine being taken on a 10-year lease from Russia. SBC in Vizag is to become the assembly line for three ATVs, costing a little over Rs 3,000 crore each or the cost of a 37,000 ton indigenous aircraft carrier built at the Cochin Shipyard. Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has begun building the hull of the second ATV at its facility in Hazira, to be inducted into the navy by 2012.

As of 2007 the first of the five long-delayed ATVs was scheduled to be fully-ready by 2010 or so. In August 2008 it was reported that on January 26, 2009, the sluice gates of an enclosed dry-dock in Visakhapatnam were to be opened and the world was to take its first look at India’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), as it entered the waters.

In February 2009 defence minister A K Antony confirmed that India’s nuclear-powered submarine is in the final stages. “The Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project is in the final stage. We had some problems with the raw material in the initial phase. But now the project is in its final stage,” he said at the ongoing Aero-India show. This was a rare admission by the defence minister – not only on the existence of the secretive project to build an indigenous nuclear submarine, but also on its developmental status. The submarine, modelled on the Russian Charlie class submarine, is slated for a sea trial in 2009. Officials in the navy and atomic energy department are hopeful of meeting the deadline this time. In the long run, the government plans to buy three nuclear submarines to provide the navy with capability to stay underwater for a very long time. Though defence and nuclear sccientists have been working on this project since 1985, they had initial setbacks with the material and miniaturisation of the nuclear reactor whih will be fitted into the submarine’s hull.

Save Energy Go green

Not with envy, but kindness to the environment, and alertness to your electricity bills

You leave your PC on all day. But you care for the environment, so you switch off the monitor. Good move, but did you know you are still wasting about 45 Watts with the CPU running?

That’s what Tufts University’s Climate Initiative says. And it also says that if you leave your PC on for the entire day, 850-1500 pounds of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere a year. And this means that you need 60-300 trees to absorb that much CO2 in a year.

That does get you thinking doesn’t it! Now, all that noise about climate change because of our insensitivity to the environment starts to make sense. We cut down trees, we waste electricity, we replace cellphones and gadgets with the latest ones, without bothering about what really happens to the old ones. While there could be debates on how much all this really impacts our environment, most of us know intuitively that what we are doing mindlessly is really not right, and is likely to have negative repercussions.

That is why the world over, the word Green is becoming red hot. Green computing is in. This means that you start to use computing resources efficiently. It’s not just about being good to Mother Nature, but also being able to save a lot of money being spent on electricity. For companies that have thousands and thousands of computers running, datacenters keeping their businesses up and running, all this can add to a huge fortune. In fact, going green is now gaining so much momentum that those companies which do not have green computing initiatives are seen as enemies of the environment.

So how does it matter to you? You might have one PC and a laptop at home, in addition to the multiple electronic devices you run. And you might even be considering another PC for the little one. Think if you really need all those PCs. Buy only if you have to. While buying, remember that laptops consume less power, so it could be wiser to go the portable way. Or if you need to look at a PC, opt for monitors that consume less power. LCD monitors need much less power than CRT ones. Look for Energy Star ratings and save energy.

Explore the power saving options of your PC and customize them to suit the way you work. If you often go away from your PC for a long time, you can set the monitor and hard disk to be switched off after a few minutes of no-activity.

To dispose old PCs and gadgets, get in touch with NGOs working in this area and figure out the best way to do so. Or if you own a branded PC or gadget, get in touch with the company and ask how this e-waste can be managed. Most computer vendors and cellphone makers have Green initiatives on, so you might get some help.

These are still early days for green initiatives for companies in India. But if you and I make a start, the rest will fall in place.

How a detector works

The job of a particle detector is to record and visualise the explosions of particles that result from the collisions at accelerators. The information obtained on a particle’s speed, mass, and electric charge help physicists to work out the identity of the particle.

The work particle physicists do to identify a particle that has passed through a detector is similar to the way someone would study the tracks of footprints left by animals in mud or snow. In animal prints, factors such as the size and shape of the marks, length of stride, overall pattern, direction and depth of prints, can reveal the type of animal that came past earlier. Particles leave tell-tale signs in detectors in a similar manner for physicists to decipher.

Modern particle physics apparatus consists of layers of sub-detectors, each specialising in a particular type of particle or property. There are 3 main types of sub-detector:

• Tracking device – detects and reveals the path of a particle
• Calorimeter – stops, absorbs and measures the energy of a particle
• Particle identification detector – identifies the type of particle using various techniques

To help identify the particles produced in the collisions, the detector usually includes a magnetic field. A particle normally travels in a straight line, but in the presence of a magnetic field, its path is bent into a curve. From the curvature of the path, physicists can calculate the momentum of the particle which helps in identifying its type. Particles with very high momentum travel in almost straight lines, whereas those with low momentum move forward in tight spirals.

Tracking devices

Tracking devices reveal the paths of electrically charged particles through the trails they leave behind. There are similar every-day effects: high-flying airplanes seem invisible, but in certain conditions you can see the trails they make. In a similar way, when particles pass through suitable substances the interaction of the passing particle with the atoms of the substance itself can be revealed.

Most modern tracking devices do not make the tracks of particles directly visible. Instead, they produce tiny electrical signals that can be recorded as computer data. A computer program then reconstructs the patterns of tracks recorded by the detector, and displays them on a screen.

They can record the curvature of a particle’s track (made in the presence of a magnetic field), from which the momentum of a particle may be calculated. This is useful for identifying the particle.

Muon chambers are tracking devices used to detect muons. These particles interact very little with matter and can travel long distances through metres of dense material. Like a ghost walking through a wall, muons can pass through successive layers of a detector. The muon chambers usually make up the outermost layer.

Calorimeters

A calorimeter measures the energy lost by a particle that goes through it. It is usually designed to entirely stop or ‘absorb’ most of the particles coming from a collision, forcing them to deposit all of their energy within the detector.

Calorimeters typically consist of layers of ‘passive’ or ‘absorbing’ high–density material (lead for instance) interleaved with layers of ‘active’ medium such as solid lead-glass or liquid argon.

Electromagnetic calorimeters measure the energy of light particles – electrons and photons – as they interact with the electrically charged particles inside matter.

Hadronic calorimeters sample the energy of hadrons (particles containing quarks, such as protons and neutrons) as they interact with atomic nuclei.

Calorimeters can stop most known particles except muons and neutrinos.

Particle identification detectors

Two methods of particle identification work by detecting radiation emitted by charged particles:

• Cherenkov radiation: this is light emitted when a charged particle travels faster than the speed of light through a given medium. The light is given off at a specific angle according to the velocity of the particle. Combined with a measurement of the momentum of the particle the velocity can be used to determine the mass and hence to identify the particle.
• Transition radiation: this radiation is produced by a fast charged particle as it crosses the boundary between two electrical insulators with different resistances to electric currents. The phenomenon is related to the energy of a particle and distinguishes different particle types.

 

WiFi

If you’ve been in an airport, coffee shop, library or hotel recently, chances are you’ve been right in the middle of a wireless network. Many people also use wireless networking, also called WiFi or 802.11 networking, to connect their computers at home, and some cities are trying to use the technology to provide free or low-cost Internet access to residents. In the near future, wireless networking may become so widespread that you can access the Internet just about anywhere at any time, without using wires.

One wireless router can allow multiple devices to connect to the Internet.

WiFi has a lot of advantages. Wireless networks are easy to set up and inexpensive. They’re also unobtrusive — unless you’re on the lookout for a place to use your laptop, you may not even notice when you’re in a hotspot. In this article, we’ll look at the technology that allows information to travel over the air. We’ll also review what it takes to create a wireless network in your home.

First, let’s go over a few WiFi basics.

What Is WiFi?

A wireless network uses radio waves, just like cell phones, televisions and radios do. In fact, communication across a wireless network is a lot like two-way radio communication. Here’s what happens:

1. A computer’s wireless adapter translates data into a radio signal and transmits it using an antenna.
2. A wireless router receives the signal and decodes it. The router sends the information to the Internet using a physical, wired Ethernet connection.

The process also works in reverse, with the router receiving information from the Internet, translating it into a radio signal and sending it to the computer’s wireless adapter.

The radios used for WiFi communication are very similar to the radios used for walkie-talkies, cell phones and other devices. They can transmit and receive radio waves, and they can convert 1s and 0s into radio waves and convert the radio waves back into 1s and 0s. But WiFi radios have a few notable differences from other radios:

• They transmit at frequencies of 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. This frequency is considerably higher than the frequencies used for cell phones, walkie-talkies and televisions. The higher frequency allows the signal to carry more data.
• They use 802.11 networking standards, which come in several flavors:
  • 802.11a transmits at 5 GHz and can move up to 54 megabits of data per second. It also uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), a more efficient coding technique that splits that radio signal into several sub-signals before they reach a receiver. This greatly reduces interference.
  • 802.11b is the slowest and least expensive standard. For a while, its cost made it popular, but now it’s becoming less common as faster standards become less expensive. 802.11b transmits in the 2.4 GHz frequency band of the radio spectrum. It can handle up to 11 megabits of data per second, and it uses complementary code keying (CCK) modulation to improve speeds.
  • 802.11g transmits at 2.4 GHz like 802.11b, but it’s a lot faster — it can handle up to 54 megabits of data per second. 802.11g is faster because it uses the same OFDM coding as 802.11a.
  • 802.11n is the newest standard that is widely available. This standard significantly improves speed and range. For instance, although 802.11g theoretically moves 54 megabits of data per second, it only achieves real-world speeds of about 24 megabits of data per second because of network congestion. 802.11n, however, reportedly can achieve speeds as high as 140 megabits per second. The standard is currently in draft form — the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) plans to formally ratify 802.11n by the end of 2009.
• Other 802.11 standards focus on specific applications of wireless networks, like wide area networks (WANs) inside vehicles or technology that lets you move from one wireless network to another seamlessly.
• WiFi radios can transmit on any of three frequency bands. Or, they can “frequency hop” rapidly between the different bands. Frequency hopping helps reduce interference and lets multiple devices use the same wireless connection simultaneously.

WiFi Hotspots

If you want to take advantage of public WiFi hotspots or start a wireless network in your home, the first thing you’ll need to do is make sure your computer has the right gear. Most new laptops and many new desktop computers come with built-in wireless transmitters. If your laptop doesn’t, you can buy a wireless adapter that plugs into the PC card slot or USB port. Desktop computers can use USB adapters, or you can buy an adapter that plugs into the PCI slot inside the computer’s case. Many of these adapters can use more than one 802.11 standard.

Once you’ve installed your wireless adapter and the drivers that allow it to operate, your computer should be able to automatically discover existing networks. This means that when you turn your computer on in a WiFi hotspot, the computer will inform you that the network exists and ask whether you want to connect to it. If you have an older computer, you may need to use a software program to detect and connect to a wireless network.

Being able to connect to the Internet in public hotspots is extremely convenient. Wireless home networks are convenient as well. They allow you to easily connect multiple computers and to move them from place to place without disconnecting and reconnecting wires. In the next section, we’ll look at how to create a wireless network in your home.

Building a Wireless Network

If you already have several computers networked in your home, you can create a wireless network with a wireless access point. If you have several computers that are not networked, or if you want to replace your Ethernet network, you’ll need a wireless router. This is a single unit that contains:

1. A port to connect to your cable or DSL modem
2. A router
3. An Ethernet hub
4. A firewall
5. A wireless access point

A wireless router allows you to use wireless signals or Ethernet cables to connect your computers to one another, to a printer and to the Internet. Most routers provide coverage for about 100 feet (30.5 meters) in all directions, although walls and doors can block the signal. If your home is very large, you can buy inexpensive range extenders or repeaters to increase your router’s range.

A wireless router uses an antenna to send signals to wireless devices and a wire to send signals to the Internet.

As with wireless adapters, many routers can use more than one 802.11 standard. 802.11b routers are slightly less expensive, but because the standard is older, they’re slower than 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n routers. Most people select the 802.11g option for its speed and reliability.

Once you plug in your router, it should start working at its default settings. Most routers let you use a Web interface to change your settings. You can select:

• The name of the network, known as its service set identifier (SSID) — The default setting is usually the manufacturer’s name.
• The channel that the router uses — Most routers use channel 6 by default. If you live in an apartment and your neighbors are also using channel 6, you may experience interference. Switching to a different channel should eliminate the problem.
• Your router’s security options — Many routers use a standard, publicly available sign-on, so it’s a good idea to set your own username and password.

Security is an important part of a home wireless network, as well as public WiFi hotspots. If you set your router to create an open hotspot, anyone who has a wireless card will be able to use your signal. Most people would rather keep strangers out of their network, though. Doing so requires you to take a few security precautions.

It’s also important to make sure your security precautions are current. The Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP) security measure was once the standard for WAN security. The idea behind WEP was to create a wireless security platform that would make any wireless network as secure as a traditional wired network. But hackers discovered vulnerabilities in the WEP approach, and today it’s easy to find applications and programs that can compromise a WAN running WEP security.

To keep your network private, you can use one of the following methods:

• WiFi Protected Access (WPA) is a step up from WEP and is now part of the 802.11i wireless network security protocol. It uses temporal key integrity protocol (TKIP) encryption. As with WEP, WPA security involves signing on with a password. Most public hotspots are either open or use WPA or 128-bit WEP technology, though some still use the vulnerable WEP approach.
• Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering is a little different from WEP or WPA. It doesn’t use a password to authenticate users — it uses a computer’s physical hardware. Each computer has its own unique MAC address. MAC address filtering allows only machines with specific MAC addresses to access the network. You must specify which addresses are allowed when you set up your router. This method is very secure, but if you buy a new computer or if visitors to your home want to use your network, you’ll need to add the new machines’ MAC addresses to the list of approved addresses. The system isn’t foolproof. A clever hacker can spoof a MAC address — that is, copy a known MAC address to fool the network that the computer he or she is using belongs on the network.

  Sources

  • Borisov, Nikita, Ian Goldberg and David Wagner. “Security of the WEP algorithm.” University of California, Berkeley. (Aug. 7, 2008)
    http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/wep-faq.html
  • Geier, Jim. “802.11 WEP: Concepts and Vulnerability.” Wi-Fi Planet. June 20, 2002. (Aug. 6, 2008)
    http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1368661
  • IEEE. (Aug. 6, 2008)
    http://www.ieee.org
  • IEEE. “IEEE Standard for Information technology — Telecommunications and information exchange between systems — Local and metropolitan area networks — Specific requirements.” (Aug. 6, 2008) http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.11-2007.pdf