The Dhruva reactor is India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

's largest nuclear research reactor

Research reactor

Research reactors are nuclear reactors that serve primarily as a neutron source. They are also called non-power reactors, in contrast to power reactors that are used for electricity production, heat generation, or maritime propulsion.-Purpose:...

. Located in the Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

 (Bombay) suburb of Trombay

Trombay

Trombay is a northeastern suburb in Mumbai, India, with Mankhurd as the closest railway station on the Harbour Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway.-History:...

 at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre is India's primary nuclear research facility based in Mumbai. It has a number of nuclear reactors, all of which are used for India's nuclear power and research programme.- History :...

 (BARC), it is India's primary generator of weapons-grade plutonium

Plutonium

Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...

-bearing spent fuel for its nuclear weapon

Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...

s program. Originally named the R-5, this pool-type reactor first went critical on 8 August 1985 after 10 years of construction. However, the unit did not attain full power until 1988, an indication that India had problems with its operation. The reactor experienced at least one serious accident when 4Mt of heavy water overflowed from the reactor core in 1985 following vibration problems.

Designed as a larger version of the CIRUS reactor

CIRUS reactor

CIRUS is a research reactor at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Trombay near Mumbai, India. CIRUS was supplied by Canada in 1954, but uses heavy water supplied by the United States. It is the second oldest reactor in India. It is modeled on the Canadian Chalk River National Research...

, Dhruva was an indigenous project built to provide an independent source of weapons-grade plutonium free from safeguards. The Dhruva project cost 950 million rupees. The reactor uses heavy water

Heavy water

Heavy water is water highly enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium; e.g., heavy water used in CANDU reactors is 99.75% enriched by hydrogen atom-fraction...

 (deuterium) as a moderator

Neutron moderator

In nuclear engineering, a neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, thereby turning them into thermal neutrons capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction involving uranium-235....

 and coolant. Aluminum clad fuel rods containing natural uranium

Natural uranium

Natural uranium refers to refined uranium with the same isotopic ratio as found in nature. It contains 0.7 % uranium-235, 99.3 % uranium-238, and a trace of uranium-234 by weight. In terms of the amount of radioactivity, approximately 2.2 % comes from uranium-235, 48.6 % uranium-238, and 49.2 %...

 are used to obtain a maximum power output of 100MW. According to conservative estimates, the reactor produces an average of 16–26 kg of weapons-grade plutonium per year in its spent fuel, while former Indian Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman P.K. Iyengar said the unit could produce up to 30 kg of weapons-grade plutonium each year.

Dhruva

Dhruva

In the Hindu mythology, Dhruva is a devotee of the god Vishnu, who blessed to attain the position of the polar star, also known as Dhruva in Sanskrit. Dhruva was the son of Uttānapāda...

, in Hindu mythology, is a prince blessed to eternal existence and glory as the Pole Star (Dhruva Nakshatra in Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

) by Lord Vishnu

Vishnu

Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....

. It can also mean simply the Pole Star

Pole star

The term "Pole Star" usually refers to Polaris, which is the current northern pole star, also known as the North Star.In general, however, a pole star is a visible star, especially a prominent one, that is approximately aligned with the Earth's axis of rotation; that is, a star whose apparent...

or 'ultimate' in Sanskrit.