Visakhapatnam: The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), which will be setting up its centre in Vizag, will launch the membrane-based water purification technology for safe drinking water in some villages in and around Achyuthapuram in the district. BARC Technology Display and Dissemination Centre (BTDDC) has been set up at Dibbapalem, to conduct awareness and training programmes on the use of the technology.
BARC is primarily in-volved in the field of research in nuclear sciences but has societal commitment domains of research and application as well. Water is one of them. BARC has developed and demonstrated several types of thermal and membrane-based desalination and water purification technologies that have also been patented. The nuclear research centre has expertise in development of water purification products and technologies besides the construction of brackish or seawater desalination plants ranging from small to large ones. The water output quality for these range from potable to high end ultra pure use.
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has developed various membrane technologies for water purification. Ultra-filtration (UF) me-mbrane technology rem-oves turbidity and micr-obial contamination fr-om contaminated water. UF, coupled with physicochemical processes, re-moves arsenic and iron. Another technology, charged nano filtration (NF) membrane technology, helps to remove heavy metals and hardness in addition to contaminants removed by the UF process. Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology produces fresh water from seawater or brackish water.
“BARC has the capability to deploy suitable membrane technologies for safe drinking water for Achyuthapuram and nearby villages like Ana-kapalle. BARC Techno-logy Display and Dissemination Centre (BTDDC) has been set up at Gitam University, Dibbapalem, Visakhapa-tnam, to conduct awareness and training programmes in villages by deploying membrane-based water purification technologies developed by BARC,” said union minister of state in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by TD MP from An-akapalle, Muthamsetti Srinivasa Rao.
There were also efforts by BARC Vizag campus to hold trials on developing paddy and oil seeds with nuclear technique, which can give farmers better yield. Trials of these seeds developed by BARC’s Trombay centre, are to check if any changes are needed to be made to them as per the local environment. BARC’s Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division at Trombay facility using radiation in-duced mutation and cro-ss-breeding had developed 41 varieties of crops.
