Wednesday, August 3 2005 16:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: All the three research reactors at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) here are safe and are functioning and were not flooded on July 26, 2005 according to the Reactor Group Director Avinash Chandra Tikku.

'Dhruva', 'Apsara' and 'Cirus' research reactors at BARC were not affected by the floods at all. All three are in good condition and functioning normally, Tikku told PTI here today (August 3, 2005).

However, the Dhruva reactor was shut down on July 25, 2005 for its scheduled refuelling and resumed its operation on July 27, 2005 while Cirus was shut down for its scheduled refuelling on July 26, 2005 and resumed operations on July 31, 2005 and were not at all affected by the July 26, 2005 rains and flooding, he said.

Apsara was operational throughout as its refuelling was not planned during last week, he said while reacting to some wrong newspaper reports.

Earlier, during 1997 Mumbai flooding, BARC had suffered heavy losses, its equipments and documents kept at the basement of its modular labs building were damaged but even then, the reactors were not affected, Tikku stressed.