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Saturday, June 19, 2010

Suggested reading for the weekend 2010.06.19

A few days back I stumbled upon this interesting set of reading material that could serve as a good starting point for anybody interesting in understanding Defence Technology or just Technology, in general.

Popular Science & Technology Series

Having been published during the late 80s-mid-90s period, the information provided is dated. Nevertheless, the simple and lucid language used to explain concepts & technology in these booklets would serve as an ideal primer for further, more contemporary reading.

In fact, going through these booklets, I could not help but feel that books such as these could be incorporated into the curriculum of students studying in Class 9 and 10 [possibly even 11 & 12] as added reading recommendations. Studying the principles of Science in the regular textbooks, a student, while going thorough these books would be able to relate those principles in real-world applications, esp., defence applications, thereby generating evoking greater interest for the Science in the student.

The current issue of Sadhana carries an interesting paper detailing the Hydraulic design of India’s prototype Fast Breeder Reactor. Of special interest are Fast Breeder Reactors to India, especially the third stage of the fuel generation cycle as it envisages conversion of Thorium, of which India has the second largest reserves in the world, into an unstable energy-liberating fissile material, thereby ensuring self-sufficiency of energy reserves.

Overview of pool hydraulic design of Indian prototype fast breeder reactor (PDF 2.72 MB)

Happy reading

Godspeed