Question

The first explosion of an atomic device in India was carried out in _____.
A. Jammu and Kashmir
B. Rajasthan
C. Maharashtra
D. Karnataka

Answer 1

Hint:1. The explosion test was carried out in the village of Pokhran.
2. It is a remote location in the ‘Thar Desert Region’.

Complete answer:
The first explosion of an atomic device in India was carried out in Rajasthan on 18th May 1974. It was detonated on the Army Base Pokhran Test Range by the Indian Army. Its official title is the Pokhran-I test and its assigned code name was ‘Smiling Buddha’. The device was formally named as the ‘Peaceful Nuclear Explosive’. It was also the first atomic weapon test by a country which was not a part of the five members of the United Nations Security Council.
On 7th September 1972, The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre was authorized by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to manufacture the nuclear device and to prepare it for a test. The head of the entire bomb project was the director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Raja Ramanna. The project was supervised by the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India, Homi Sethna. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was also present at the test site as a representative of the DRDO (Defense Research and Development Organisation).
The explosive materials and detonation system of the nuclear weapon was Waman Dattatreya, an Indian nuclear chemist and defense scientist who worked at the ‘High Energy Materials Research Laboratory’.
To maintain the secrecy of the project, not more than 75 scientists and engineers were employed during the time from 1967 to 1974.

Thus, the correct answer is Option (B) Rajasthan.

Note:1. The device had an implosion-type design and was in close resemblance to the American nuclear bomb called ‘Fat Man’.
2. The Implosion system, detonation system and 6kg plutonium for the bomb came from the DRDO of Chandigarh, DRDO of Pune and CIRCUS Reactor of BARC respectively.