Mumbai, Oct 23 (IANS): Renowned nuclear scientist and engineer Sekhar Basu, currently director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) here, was on Friday appointed the new chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission, an official statement said.
Basu, 63, will also be secretary, department of atomic energy here on Friday. He succeeds R.K. Sinha, who headed the AEC for nearly three-and-half years.
Started his career in the BARC' Research Engineering Division in 1975, Basu also worked as project director, Nuclear Submarine Programme and later as Nuclear Recycle Board's chief executive.
Considered as an engineer of exceptional abilities, he played a lead role in multiple areas of nuclear science and engineering and is a major contributor in establishing the country as a leader in the nuclear field.
Kolkata-born Basu studied at the Ballygunge Government School and later did his ME from VJTI, University of Mumbai in 1974 before joining the BARC Training School.
His career started by designing fuel for Boiling Water Reactor, and later, he took up the task of developing nuclear submarine propulsion plant and built the land-based prototype at Kalpakkam from scratch.
From 2000, Basu handled the design, development, construction and operation of nuclear recycling plants at Tarapur and Kalpakkam, involving reprocessing of and nuclear waste management.
These plants are perfoming to international standards and he is pursuing the design of an Integrated Nuclear Recycle Plant which would take the programme to a higher platform.
He was responsible for the development of the Indian Neutrino Observatory at Tamil Nadu and is engaged in development of 1 Gev Superconducting Accelerators for the Accelerator Driven System Programme.
As director, BARC, Basu took special initiatives for major expansion of the societal programmes of the atomic energy department in the field of nuclear agriculture, food preservation and nuclear medicine.
He has been the guiding spirit behind establishing nuclear fuel cycle park involving research reactors, fuel fabrication and reprocessing facilities at the Vizag Campus of BARC and intiatied work on the design of the Indian Pressurised Water Reactor.
Basu has several publications to his credit in national and international journals and many awards, including Padma Shri awarded last year.