Mumbai: In yet another attempt to mute a flaring controversy, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar today affirmed that the 1998 test was not only successful but also enables Indian scientists to build H-bombs with an explosive power of upto 200 kilotons.

This photo, released by the Government of India on 17 May 1998, shows the Pokhran-II test site after a nuclear device was detonated underground on 11 May.

"Once again I would like to re-emphasise that the 1998 nuclear tests were fully successful. We had achieved all the objectives in toto.

"It has given us the capability to build deterrence based on both fission and thermonuclear weapon systems from modest to all the way upto 200 kilotons," Kakodkar said, addressing a press conference here.

Kakodkar termed as "unnecessary" the controversy over the Pokhran-II nuclear tests.

The controversy flared upon claims by senior ex-defence scientist K Santhanam, who was the co-ordinator for the Pokhran-II tests, that though the fission tests – i.e. atom bomb – test had worked like a ''song,'' the fusion or the hydrogen bomb test was a failure.

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai along with the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Union government, R Chidambaram, Kakodkar said the Pokharan-II nuclear tests provided India the capability to build deterrence in both the fission and fusion categories.

Earlier, on 15 September, in a signed statement, atomic energy secretary K Muralidhar also ruled out the claims and stated that ''the thermonuclear test had to be kept at 45 KT in order to protect the nearby Khetorai village from the combined yield of the thermonuclear and fission test.''

The current controversy flared up as Dr Santhanam, who was a senior scientist with the Defence Research and Development Organisation in 1998, claimed that the Pokhran-II 'Shakti' tests resulted in less 'yield' than what was actually claimed.

He also claims that in a 50-page classified report he had warned the central government then of the discrepancy and had stressed that the country may need to go in for another round of tests to fully satisfy itself about the efficacy of the weapon design.

He has demanded an inquiry by an independent panel of experts into the test results.

R Chidambaram, chairman of the AEC in 1998 made a presentation on the results of the Pokhran-II nuclear tests.