India’s nuclear safety faces heat amid tensions with Pakistan

While questioning Islamabad’s nuclear record, India is grappling with its own rising cases of radioactive material theft and weak safeguards

Muslim Network TV Analysis

By Safeer Raza

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (MNTV) – Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday raised alarm over the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

He called for its international supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), citing Islamabad’s “irresponsible” nuclear conduct.

However, Singh’s remarks have prompted counter-questions on how safe is India’s nuclear arsenal?

With 180 nuclear warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India is one of the world’s major nuclear powers.

While 26 facilities — including 14 reactors and some fuel processing sites — are under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

But several crucial ones, including 8 reactors and additional military-linked sites, remain outside the agency’s purview.

And yet, recent events suggest India’s internal nuclear safety mechanisms are falling far short of what is expected of a state with such capacity.

The most glaring of these was in August 2024, when Bihar Police arrested three individuals in Gopalganj for illegally possessing 50 grams of Californium, a highly radioactive element valued at over ₹850 crore (roughly $101 million).

Californium, typically used in nuclear reactors and scientific research, is prohibited for public possession or trade.

Shockingly, the accused had been trying to sell the substance using a forged lab certificate purportedly from IIT-Madras — a document later exposed as fake by the institute itself.

Investigations are still underway to determine the source and intended buyers of the radioactive material.

In a separate development, five individuals were arrested in July 2024 in Dehradun with a sealed radioactive source reportedly stolen from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) — one of India’s most protected nuclear research facilities.

The incident raised serious concerns about internal security lapses and the existence of potential insider involvement.

But perhaps the most damning development came from outside India.

On January 8, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that Japanese underworld figure Takeshi Ebisawa had pleaded guilty to trafficking weapons-grade plutonium and uranium from Myanmar to neighboring countries.

Investigations by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration revealed that Ebisawa had built a smuggling network involving multiple Asian countries — including India.

While the Department of Justice (DOJ) did not specify the Indian connection in detail, it confirmed links to individuals and potential materials sourced from Indian territory.

This revelation marked the first time India has been explicitly connected to an international nuclear smuggling ring of this magnitude.

Nuclear vulnerability

India’s nuclear vulnerability is not a new phenomenon.

A 1996 report submitted to the IAEA identified 130 safety-related concerns at Indian nuclear facilities.

Between 1995 and 1998, an Indian parliamentary report cited 147 security or technical mishaps at atomic energy plants.

These included everything from equipment failure and radiation leaks to personnel negligence.

More recently, India’s global nuclear security rankings have continued to fall short.

The 2023 Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) Index ranked India 20th out of 22 countries on secure materials, with a score of 40 out of 100.

On protecting nuclear facilities, India scored 52 out of 100 — placing it 40th among 47 countries. In contrast, Pakistan ranked just above India in both categories and was recognised as one of the most improved countries in the 2020 and 2023 indices.

Experts point to systemic weaknesses in India’s nuclear regulation.

Although India is a signatory to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) and bound by UN Security Council Resolution 1540 — which requires strict domestic legislation to prevent nuclear materials from falling into non-state hands — it has yet to establish an independent nuclear regulatory authority.

Additionally, a significant portion of India’s civilian nuclear facilities remains unsafeguarded, producing reactor-grade plutonium that, according to analyst Dr. Mansoor Ahmed, can be quickly weaponized.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office has called India’s non-proliferation record a “myth,” citing repeated incidents of radioactive material being found in civilian possession. It has demanded that the IAEA take note and conduct a full investigation.

“The international community seeks an earnest disclosure from Indian authorities,” the statement read, “as to how such sensitive radioactive material repeatedly ends up outside official custody.”

As Western nations continue to pursue nuclear cooperation with India and advocate its membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), experts warn that geopolitical alliances must not overshadow glaring security risks. Preferential treatment, they argue, emboldens complacency.

The theft of radioactive materials, particularly Californium, uranium, and isotopes from India’s facilities, is not merely a domestic concern. In the hands of non-state actors, these materials could be used to build dirty bombs or improvised radiological devices — a catastrophic scenario for South Asia and beyond.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry has also issued a strongly worded response, urging the IAEA to investigate what it called a growing “nuclear black market” in India.

“The IAEA should be worried about the repeated illicit trafficking incidents involving radioactive material in India,” the statement read, highlighting what Islamabad described as an alarming pattern of nuclear insecurity within India’s borders.

Key incidents of nuclear material theft or smuggling in India:

• August 2024: 50g of Californium worth ₹850 crore seized in Bihar; suspects carried a fake IIT-Madras lab report.
• July 2024: Sealed radioactive device reportedly stolen from BARC found in Dehradun with five arrested.
• February 2022: Two Indians and six Nepali nationals arrested in Kathmandu for smuggling 2.5kg of uranium.
• May 2021: 7.1kg of uranium seized in Maharashtra from suspects linked to strategic organisations.
• April 2021: 250kg of radioactive uranium seized in Jharkhand.
• 2018: 1kg of uranium valued at ₹3 crore seized in Kolkata.
• 2013: Reports of uranium ore theft from a milling plant in central India.
• 2008–2000: Multiple seizures ranging from 2.5kg to 25kg of uranium across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, and Maharashtra.
• 1998: 100kg of uranium found with a political leader in West Bengal; separate smuggling racket busted in Tamil Nadu.

These cases, many of which never reached international reporting mechanisms like the IAEA’s Incident and Trafficking Database, paint a troubling picture. India’s credibility as a responsible nuclear power — and its ability to prevent radioactive material from falling into the wrong hands — is now under serious question.

India’s troubling global rankings

India’s nuclear safety record is reflected in the 2023 Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) Index:

Pakistan has shown consistent improvement, with a 3-point gain in 2023, while India’s score has not improved since 2018.

Despite this, experts say, India continues to receive preferential treatment from the U.S. and Western powers — including NSG waivers and civil nuclear deals — even as serious safety risks go unaddressed.