Mumbai, Sep 24 - The nuclear tests India conducted in May 1998 were fully successful and helped the country achieve capability to build fission and thermonuclear fusion weapons from low yields up to 200 kilo tonnes, two top scientists said Thursday.
Setting at rest all controversies generated recently over the tests, Anil Kakodkar, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and R. Chidambaram, principal scientific advisor to the government, said the nuclear tests at Pokhran in Rajashtan had achieved the desired scientific objectives.
Their joint statement came after doubts were raised by two retired scientists, K. Santhanam and P.K. Iyengar, on the tests conducted May 11 and 13, 1998.
Kakodkar said that on the basis of the capability, India had the ability to meet national security requirements and did not require to conduct more such tests.
Elaborating, Chidambaram, the architect of Pokhran-II, said that several measurements had confirmed the yields of the tests.
Proving the point, he said that noted US seismologist Jack Evernden had made estimations of the tests taking into consideration geological and seismological differences between the test sites.