To Make Deserts Bloom

Abstract: From 1988 to 1993 nuclear physicist Mambillkalathil Govind Kumar Menon was president of the International Council of Scientific Unions, a non-governmental organization long involved in environmental and development issues. He was also India's minister of state for science and technology from 1986 to 1989, and he served in the Parliament from 1990 to 1996. In this video segment, Menon describes the euphoria following World War II when international cooperation on atomic science and technology flourished.In the interview Menon conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age: 'The Haves and Have-Nots,' he offers reflections on the dynamic and visionary nuclear physicist Dr. Homi Bhabha. Dr. Bhabha saw the possibility for the modern development of India in creating programs that would harness the newly emerging technology of nuclear energy. Menon captures the zeal of scientists at the first United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. He also defines some basic nuclear processes and principles: how fission works, controlled and uncontrolled chain reactions, and the difference between generating nuclear energy and manufacturing weapons. In 1974, under the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi, India conducted an underground nuclear test. Menon defends what India called a peaceful nuclear explosion as a means to explore enhanced mining techniques and other feats of large-scale underground nuclear engineering. With equal enthusiasm, Menon describes the possibilities of India's space program for expanding telecommunications and gathering data for waterand land-resource management. The global threat, he maintains, is not India but a nuclear exchange between the two superpowers. Paraphrasing Indira Gandhi, Menon concludes, 'What we want is not to make deserts but to make deserts bloom.'

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