Mangalore University Establishes India’s First Dedicated Iodine Aerosol Research Facility for Nuclear Safety
Mangaluru: In a significant milestone for India’s nuclear safety research programme, Mangalore University has established the country’s first dedicated experimental facility for iodine aerosol generation and characterisation at its Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Radioactivity (CARER).
The state-of-the-art facility has been developed with financial support from the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), and scientific and technical collaboration with the Radiation Protection and Advisory Division (RP&AD) of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai. This initiative brings together Mangalore University and BARC for collaborative research in radiation protection and nuclear reactor safety, establishing a specialised research facility of national importance.
The facility addresses a critical area of radiation protection in the nuclear energy sector. Radioactive iodine is one of the most significant radionuclides that may be released during a severe nuclear accident due to its high volatility and potential to contribute substantially to public radiation exposure. Understanding iodine’s chemical transformation, conversion into aerosols, particle growth, and behaviour under varying environmental conditions is essential for improving reactor safety, emergency preparedness, and environmental protection.
Until now, India lacked a dedicated experimental facility outside a Department of Atomic Energy institution for investigating these processes under well-controlled laboratory conditions. Consequently, researchers and reactor safety analysts have largely relied on experimental data generated abroad. The establishment of this indigenous facility marks an important step towards scientific self-reliance in an area of strategic national importance.
The facility was developed by upgrading CARER’s specially designed walk-in environmental chamber into an advanced experimental platform capable of simulating a wide range of environmental conditions. It enables precise control of temperature, relative humidity, ozone concentration, and background aerosol levels, allowing researchers to investigate iodine behaviour under conditions relevant to severe nuclear reactor accidents.
The facility integrates advanced oxygen concentrators, ozone generators and monitors, iodine aerosol generation systems, and aerosol characterisation instruments. These enable controlled iodine aerosol generation and systematic investigations into physicochemical transformations, particle formation and growth, size distribution, and deposition processes.
The experimental platform will allow scientists to generate iodine aerosols under controlled conditions and investigate their transformation into iodine oxide aerosols. It will facilitate detailed studies of vapour-to-particle conversion, aerosol formation mechanisms, particle size distribution, hygroscopic growth, and other physicochemical processes governing the transport, transformation, and environmental deposition of radioactive iodine.
The experimental data generated through these studies will provide valuable inputs for validating and improving computational models used in reactor safety analysis, source-term estimation and accident consequence assessment.
Professor P. L. Dharma, Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore University, described the establishment of the facility as a significant achievement reflecting the University’s growing contribution to nationally important scientific research.
“Over the past decade, CARER has evolved into one of India’s leading centres for environmental radioactivity, radioecology, radiation protection and nuclear safety research. It has developed several indigenous technologies and specialised research facilities that support the country’s nuclear energy programme,” he said.
He further noted that Mangalore University had gained significant recognition in radiation protection research and that the new facility would provide further impetus to advanced scientific studies at the University.
Professor N. Karunakara, Principal Investigator of the BRNS-sponsored research project and Coordinator of CARER, said the facility would provide a nationally important experimental platform for studying iodine aerosol behaviour under reactor accident conditions.
“The indigenous experimental database generated through this facility will strengthen reactor safety research, improve predictive modelling capabilities and reduce India’s dependence on experimental data from overseas. The facility is expected to support collaborative research involving the Department of Atomic Energy, BARC, universities, research institutions and regulatory organisations,” he said.
CARER is internationally recognised for its research in environmental radioactivity, radioecology, radiation protection and nuclear safety. Equipped with advanced experimental and analytical facilities, the Centre has developed several indigenous technologies and supported collaborative research, calibration, intercomparison and capacity-building programmes involving scientists from India and numerous countries.
The establishment of the iodine aerosol research facility further strengthens CARER’s position as a national centre of excellence in environmental radiation science and experimental nuclear safety research.
The initiative also highlights the value of sustained collaboration between a university and a premier national research laboratory. By combining Mangalore University’s scientific capabilities with the expertise of RP&AD, BARC, the facility is expected to generate high-quality indigenous experimental data and advance India’s self-reliance in nuclear safety research.
A team of senior BARC scientists is currently conducting collaborative experimental studies at Mangalore University under the BRNS-sponsored research project. The first phase of the experimental programme commenced on October 7, 2026, and is scheduled to continue until October 22, 2026. The second and third phases are planned for November 2026 and January 2027, respectively.
These collaborative studies are expected to further strengthen the University’s research capabilities and contribute to a deeper scientific understanding of iodine aerosol behaviour under conditions relevant to nuclear reactor accidents.
Reduce repeated claims about national importance
