National Technology Day is observed on 11 May every year to commemorate which event?
- A.The launch of Aryabhata
- B.The Pokhran nuclear tests of 1998
- C.The commissioning of Apsara
- D.The formation of the Atomic Energy Commission
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the Pokhran nuclear tests of 1998. On 11 May 1998 India tested three nuclear devices at Pokhran under Operation Shakti, followed by two more on 13 May, and the day was declared National Technology Day to mark that achievement along with the test flight of the Trishul missile and the first flight of the Hansa aircraft on the same day. Option A is wrong because Aryabhata, India's first satellite, was launched on 19 April 1975. Option C is wrong because the Apsara research reactor became critical on 4 August 1956 and has no day named after it. Option D is wrong because the Atomic Energy Commission was set up in 1948, again with no commemorative day. The trap here is 1974, which candidates often pick because it is the better remembered test.
Read the full article: Nuclear Programme of India: Three Stages and Reactors
Practice Questions
View allWhere was India's first nuclear power plant set up?
- A.Tarapur
- B.Kudankulam
- C.Kaiga
- D.Rawatbhata
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The Tarapur Atomic Power Station in Maharashtra was commissioned in 1969 with American assistance and was the first nuclear power station in India as well as in Asia; its first two units are boiling water reactors, a design used nowhere else in the country.
Read the full explanation →In the Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactor, a natural uranium fuelled reactor, the function of moderator and coolant is performed by:
- A.heavy water
- B.light water
- C.carbon dioxide
- D.sodium
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The CANDU design, from which India's pressurised heavy water reactors descend, burns natural uranium, and natural uranium contains only about seven parts in a thousand of the fissile isotope uranium 235.
Read the full explanation →The coolant used in a boiling water reactor is:
- A.carbon dioxide
- B.pressurised water
- C.a mixture of water and steam
- D.liquid metal
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In a boiling water reactor, the design used at Tarapur, ordinary water is allowed to boil inside the reactor vessel itself, so the coolant leaving the core is a mixture of water and steam; the steam is separated at the top and driven straight to the turbine, without the separate…
Read the full explanation →Who is regarded as the father of the Indian nuclear programme?
- A.Vikram Sarabhai
- B.Homi Jehangir Bhabha
- C.Raja Ramanna
- D.A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
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Bhabha founded the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 1945, became the first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948, drew up the three stage plan built around India's thorium, and led the establishment at Trombay that was renamed the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre after his death in 1966.
Read the full explanation →Apsara, the first nuclear research reactor in Asia, became critical in 1956 at which place?
- A.Kalpakkam
- B.Trombay
- C.Rawatbhata
- D.Tarapur
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Apsara went critical at Trombay near Mumbai on 4 August 1956 and was the first nuclear research reactor not only in India but in the whole of Asia; the CIRUS reactor of 1960 and the Dhruva reactor of 1985 were built at the same site, which is today the Bhabha…
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