Interview - Mr. Durgesh Lingampalle (Scientific Officer at BARC, Mumbai)

I am grateful of taking the interview series ahead by talking with Mr. Durgesh Lingampalle Sir. He is a Scientific Officer working in BARC, Mumbai. What would give a more learning opportunity for us than listening to some high profile technical persons in the world. I was waiting keenly to write an article on nuclear energy and fortunately, I got a chance to speak with him. Thank you Sir for your precious time. 

Hope you all have a good read.

1. Hello Sir. Thanks for your valuable time. It feels proud to anyone to be a part of a renowned government organization. Tell us something about your profile at BARC.

Yes definitely. I feel very proud of working in country’s one of the most esteemed and premier multidisciplinary research organization like Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). Currently I am working as a Scientific Officer(D). Being a Process Control & Instrumentation Engineer, I am responsible for design, detail engineering, development, commissioning and maintenance of various C&I systems deployed for utility services pertaining to radiological laboratories at BARC. As most of these utility services are of safety related ones, availability of these services is mandatory for functioning of Radiological Laboratories and hence the services are made available on Round-the-Clock basis.

My job is to maintain all the C&I system, especially safety related ones, for their highest availability and smooth uninterrupted functioning. However, on time-to-time basis, as and when required, we make additions and alterations in these C&I systems, for its betterments and to meet the varying R&D requirements, with consent of safety committees.

 

2. Given the criticality and sensitivity of the job that you do, have there been any instances when there was an emergency and you had to rush to solve it for proper working of the system?

There have been few occasions, when I had to take quick decisions or an anticipatory action to avoid landing in accidental situation. One of the situations which I could recall is; once we were carrying out functionality testing by simulating a grid power failure scenario, to assess how our system responds under emergency power conditions. Hence the plant was under shutdown, with all the critical equipment running. Everything was going as per standard procedures, and suddenly there was a failure of major equipment. It was very critical equipment and certainly it would have increased downtime of the plant. Since it was a planned shutdown for weekend, by Monday morning, entire plant had to be resumed. So, to solve that problem, a thorough troubleshooting was carried out. It took entire Sunday night and with sincere efforts, our team succeeded in solving the problem and subsequently the plant was made operational.

There were few other occasions as well, the accidents wherein the various design features like diversity, redundancy and defence in depth deployed in C&I systems were at serious test. And fortunately, the engineering efforts paid off and all these systems performed as intended. That gives lot of pleasure as an engineer.

3. How do you see the future of nuclear energy in the world?

I may be too young to answer this globally acclaimed question. Based on my experience and whatever exposure I had to Nuclear Science, I can certainly say that there will definitely be much brighter prospects of nuclear energy, especially for power generation.  In this modern time, world is looking at nuclear energy as the most promising solution to cleanly- generated electricity; not only for its huge potential for growth but also the emission-free nature and consistent nature of production. Every country is putting sincere efforts in expansion of nuclear power to grab the major share of their electricity production. In addition to this, there are enormous other applications of nuclear energy such as seawater desalination, hydrogen production, district heating and cooling, process heat for industries, nuclear medicines using various radioisotopes for treatment of critical diseases such as cancer etc.

4. How important are safely, rules and procedures when working with a nuclear organization?

The safety procedures and standards such as AERB Codes & guides, IAEA guidelines, Indian standards, ISA standards, IEC standards etc are very crucial in designing of any systems for nuclear industry; as it insights on formulating the minimum requirements for ensuring adequate safety in plant design. It is mandatory for us that any system designed and developed must comply to regulatory requirements. Thus, these standards play an important role to identify the various components or systems; failure of which may lead to entire plant shutdown. This guides us to distinguish all safety systems in two major categories which are safety-related systems and safety critical systems, which is a crucial stage in deploying defence-in-depth principles in system design.

In AERB safety guide, the C&I systems are classified, based on safety considerations, into three classes - IA, IB and IC. This helps us in designing the C&I systems, to provide engineered features to mitigate the consequences of any type of accident situation. The computer-based instrumentation and control systems using PLC and SCADA are being used increasingly both in safety related applications, such as some functions of the process control and monitoring systems, as well as in safety critical applications, actuation of engineered safety systems.

In addition to these nuclear industry specific standards, we also refer to various international standards as well. For examples say for developing a PLC-SCADA based control and monitoring system, we follow many standards such as IEC-61131 and ISO/IEC 9506 for PLC hardware and programming, IEC61850 and ISO/IEC 27033 standard to design a communication networks and systems for power utility automation, IEC964 for design of control room, and for PLC environmental testing and degree of enclosure protection, IEC 60068 and IEC60664 are referred.

5. How do you handle stressful situations in such a critical environment?

For me when situation gets little stressful, I prefer looking for ways to organize and streamline my tasks. Whenever required, I seek help from my seniors on prioritizing the work. On regular intervals, I go to my Head, for identifying the areas of improvements and clarifications on his expectations from me. Sometimes my inherent qualities like adaptability & flexibility to any change, ability to learn from past mistakes and focus towards work helps me in handling stress effectively. Through my personal experience, I have learned that the more I am exposed to handling a challenging situation every time, I do better than before and come out as even stronger. This keeps me going and motivates me to handle further more challenges.

6. People just neglect higher studies for job and income at a certain age. To be precise, you have your Masters in Nuclear Engineering. How would you motivate learners to pursue for higher studies or do part time jobs with studies, and contribute to a more educated society?

According to me, not only post-graduation for that matter, but any education gives you knowledge which ultimately helps you to excel your skills at work.  In the current situation, where a graduation degree can also give you a decent job, the obvious question arises is - why to go for higher studies then? My view point about that is, desire to pursue higher education comes from two things. Firstly, either to further boost your expertise in your current domain for better long term career progression or to switch or start your career as a professional in a certain other field. And second would be to target potential income. I strongly recommend to pursue higher education in your field of interest. In spite of having keen interest; for everyone, it may not be possible to leave their job because of their personal commitments. For them, these days, there are enormous options available like studying part-time or the growing trend of online courses. Ultimately what is important, is to be in continuous learning process and your determination towards it.

In my case, I have completed MTech in Nuclear Engineering after joining BARC. Our first year of BARC training school itself was a first year of MTech and subsequently, after getting posted in certain division, we were allowed to undergo a project activity, apart from routine responsibilities, to get hands on experience and practical knowledge. That had certainly enriched my skills and subject knowledge.

7. How was the situation of BARC in Covid times?

Suddenly out of nowhere, entire world was landed in fight against Covid-19 pandemic. There was no time for preparedness. Every organization faced difficulties in designing and setting up work-from-home policies, for safety of their employees. Like every other organization, BARC also too took most immediate and preventive measures. Most of the employees were working from home, coordinating with their team over virtual platforms. My division, being under essential services, was asked to attend duties with 50% attendance. Initially it was very challenging for every one of us; but gradually, we all are getting adapted to the situation. There is substantial improvement in work efficiency, as well as the assessment measures. BARC has provided every possible help to the best that they could have. And what can be more satisfying than getting a salary credited in your account every month, in this tough times.

8. I personally admire A.P.J Abdul Kalam Sir as a great inspiration for life. Who is your ideal motivation in life to work for a better future?

There are many great eminent personalities from various domains who inspire me to work for better future. Talking about science and technology, I admire Dr. Homi Jahangir Bhabha, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, C.V.Raman, Vikram Sarabhai, Dr. Satish Dhawan, Kalpana Chawala. and Stephen Hawking the most. They are my greatest motivators.

Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, an architects of India’s 3 stage nuclear energy program, is the one whom I look up to the most. Bhabha was a multifaceted personality, a scientist, visionary and institution builder. In spite of him being a physicist by core, he demonstrated his management skills while setting up premier research organization like BARC, TIFR. His commendable thoughts and long-term vision to make India as energy independent country in the world gave India a prestigious three stage Nuclear program and a roadmap to achieve it. He has achieved the most out of whatever less was offered to him.  Dr. Bhabha was an innovator, the man of dedication, integrity, and believed in doing their work silently and whose work represented our country in the world. Bhabha inspired every youth engineer or science graduates to think progressive about our country and do something great for it.

10. What according to you is the next best power resource after nuclear energy?

According to me, thinking about renewable and clean energy source, there cannot be any one renewable energy source; then be it even Nuclear energy, even that can’t fulfil our energy demands. I feel it shall be a package, with electricity being produced by all the renewable energy sources such as solar, tidal, wind, bio energy, hydro power and geothermal power.

Coming to your question, amongst these options, the one which attracts me the most and sounds most promising to me is a Wind energy for power generation, with close to nil carbon and air pollution emissions. Yes, there are constraints like large space requirements, for the wind turbine to allow room for the blades to spin. With non-usable places like mountains or coastal area, in some cases, it can be made feasible. Alongside, efforts can also be put in management for effective utilization in that same place for means like say farming, storage area, increasing road connectivity etc.

11. It is always said that a situation or any real-life experience turns a person into scientist. Suppose you are given a power to invent something, what would you do?

If you ask literally anything, then I would say; if given a power to invent, I would like to invent a biodegradable and easy to recycle material that could completely replace plastic. And considering my domain knowledge, within C&I, I would love to invent ways in which industrial automation can be taken to a new height with the use of modern technologies like artificial intelligence, deep machine learning, IoT, cloud computing technology, robotics etc.

12. What are the special design considerations for industrial automation system specific to nuclear facilities? Can you tell us some of the design principles considered? If possible, give us an example?

The role of Industrial automation in nuclear systems is very crucial, considering the criticality and stringent operating requirements. The various design features like diversity, redundancy, defence-in- depth etc. are implemented. As an example, say while designing a PLC-SCADA based automation system for nuclear facility, there are various principles taken into consideration like; starting from control room, there are usually two control called as Main control room and Backup control room, physically located at distinct places, which is essential in event of accidents like fire. The control system architecture is designed such that from both the control rooms, monitoring and control of entire plant is possible. Redundancy is provided at controller, backplane, IO card level, channel level etc. In addition, communication redundancy, network redundancy, IO server redundancy, dedicated historian server for data logging and reporting is implemented.   In case of PLC panels, only low voltage interrogation is permitted, and every high voltage signal is routed through interposing relay. The PLC panels and cabinets are seismically qualified. Design is implemented such that failure of any component as small as a relay or a SMPS etc. will not lead to entire system failure. The coincidence logic, popularly known as 2-out-of-3 logic, is implemented in two ways which are ‘Global 2oo3’ and ‘Local 2oo3’ at all the levels of automation. However, at the same time, to avoid common cause failure, independent logic such as physically distinct locations, functional distribution of controls, and isolation at various stages is implemented. In order to improve the reliability and availability of the entire automation system, the Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) is implemented. The PLC programming software conforms to IEC-61131 part 3.  In case of alarm management, features such as alarm suppression, filtering and shelving is implemented. So basically, for nuclear applications, PLC-SCADA based automation systems are designed very carefully giving importance to every smallest component involved.

13. You had prior experience of 3 years working with Thermax, tell us something about that? What motivated to study further for exams like GATE and join BARC?

Yes, prior to joining BARC, I was working with Thermax Ltd, Power Division as C&I Detail Engineering Executive, for 3 years. Basically, I was responsible for Detail engineering of C&I systems pertaining to thermal power plant. About why BARC, I may have to give an elaborative answer. See, it was not the case that I was unhappy with that job; rather that profile was very much challenging and had good career progression.

In spite of that, I personally always wanted to be a part of organization that could offer me a bigger platform to explore multidisciplinary domain. And if you take any corporate company, being profit driven organization; mostly there, our role as an engineer is to provide cost effective solution, even at the cost of compromising quality or we can say durability, accuracy, precise control, repeatability, drift etc in case of our C&I. The harsh reality is that the more money one can save for their organization, the more he would be recognized as a better performer. Somewhere deep down, I never wanted myself to be judged on those measures. And secondly, with the experience I had, I realized that with thermal power plant being there for so many decades, the detail engineering was very much matured and had become much more structured one, or crudely one can say very repetitive. Just certain things here and there as per configuration of that project, and you are ready with engineering solution. Through my words, it may sound very easy, but what I mean is, even if the project cycle was tedious and challenges were definitely there, but somewhere the solutions were not very tricky ones. With whatever little proficiency gained over 3 years, I found my learning curve being flattened. That actually pushed me to thing something out of the box and prepare for exams like GATE, and then either to pursue my career in academic domain or join PSUs or research organizations like BARC, ISRO, DRDO. Luckily, I could make it through in the same year and got selected in BARC. In short, I could say, I was always eager to be in continuous learning process that pushed to me try GATE and finally join BARC.   

14. Finally, ending this interview, what motivating message would you like to give readers in these tough times and sail out properly. This is the most common question I ask in the end, but I feel it has the power to help people in dealing with situations better.

I always believe in chasing dreams. The more you work for your dream, more you get closer to it. As it is said, ‘Dreams do come true’, I urge everyone to have courage to dream big and work hard to chase until you achieve.

Thank You Viral Nagda; it has been a wonderful experience talking with you. Many thoughts were passing through my mind, like am I really at that stage that somebody would like to interview me? or Have I achieved anything remarkable yet that I shall be giving an interview about my journey? Is it not too early? And many more similar questions passed through my head. After pondering, I realized, as of now I may not be amongst the greatest achievers in the world, and may not be amongst the one who had left the impact in this world, but with whatever less I have achieved so far, even if I could manage to encourage at least one person/reader through my answers, then it is worth sharing. Even if I would succeed in motivating at least one person, in his/her life to do something great and uplift their self-belief, then the effort is definitely worth. I hope all the readers find this information worth reading. If I could be of any help to you, please write me at dlingampalle@gmail.com. Thank you.

Thank you Sir for your valuable time. This was a relatively new source of information for us and I strongly believe that the readers will enjoy reading this.

Dear readers; if you have any questions, then we would be happy to hear from you and would like to share the knowledge as much as possible.