Activities

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was established under the direct charge of the Prime Minister through a Presidential Order on August 3, 1954. DAE is responsible for the entire spectrum of activities related to nuclear science and technology encompassing power generation, research, development, safety, security, safeguards, environmental protection, international collaborations and societal applications.

The Department of Atomic Energy and its constituent establishments play a pivotal role in advancing nuclear science, technology and innovation. DAE comprises 6 research centres-BARC (Mumbai), IGCAR (Kalpakkam), RRCAT (Indore), VECC (Kolkata), AMDER (Hyderabad) and GCNEP (Bahadurgarh); 3 industrial organizations- NFC (Hyderabad), HWB (Mumbai) and BRIT (Mumbai); 5 public sector undertakings- NPCIL (Mumbai), BHAVINI (Kalpakkam), ECIL (Hyderabad), UCIL (Jaduguda) and IREL (India) Limited (Mumbai); and 3 service organizations-DCSEM (Mumbai), DPS (Mumbai) and GSO (Kalpakkam). DAE has 11 grant-in-aid institutes of international repute engaged in research in basic and applied sciences, cancer care & research; and education (TIFR, SINP, TMC, HRI, IoP, NISER, IMSc, IPR, HBNI, UM-DAE CEBS and AEES). It also has under its aegis, 2 boards (BRNS and NBHM) for promoting and funding extramural research in nuclear and allied fields and mathematics.

The following list outlines the activities of the Department of Atomic Energy:

Construction and operation of nuclear reactors.
Development of advanced reactors and systems.
Research and development of fast reactor and fusion technologies.
Application of nuclear technologies across various fields of societal importance.
Exploration of uranium resources, atomic minerals and rare earths.
Uranium mining, processing and production.
Rare Earths mining, processing and production.
Fabrication of nuclear fuel assemblies for power plants.
Production of Heavy Water and deuterated compounds.
Isotope production for medical, industrial and agricultural applications.
Research and development in the field of accelerator, plasma and laser technologies.
Materials science research for nuclear applications.
Research and development in electronics and instrumentation.
Affordable cancer care and research.
Human resource capacity building in various areas of nuclear science and technology.
Promoting excellence in basic and fundamental sciences and mathematics.
International collaborations for peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Public awareness and outreach
Higher education and training on nuclear science and technology