Chennai, May 18 (IANS) N.Srinivasan, one of the pioneers of the Indian atomic energy programme and the first project director of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), passed away here Sunday due to cardiac arrest, the IGCAR said. He was 84.
Joining the country's nuclear establishment in 1953, Srinivasan was the design engineer for the plutonium plant at Trombay, and he established the indigenous technology for reprocessing of spent fuels from thermal reactors.
As the project director of IGCAR (then called Reactor Research Centre) at Kalpakkam, Srinivasan was responsible for establishing various programes and facilities related tofast reactors and associated fuel cycle.
He later went on to become chief executive of Heavy Water Board and later the Nuclear Fuel Complex.
He was a member of Atomic Energy Commission during 1982-87 and was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2000 and the Lifetime Achievement Award of department of atomic energy for excellence in science and technology for the year 2009.
Srinivasan is survived by his wife, son and daughter.