​Local man receives lifetime achievement award as nuclear engineer, writer, in India and Canada

Singaravel Pandian Jayabarathan, known as “Jay,” of Kincardine and now living in Ripley, has been presented with a lifetime achievement award for his contributions as an atomic scientist and writer in India and Canada.

The award was presented in January at the seventh International Conference on Recent Innovations to Modern Science and Technology, hosted by the KPR Institute of Engineering and Technology in Tamil Nadu, India.

Jay was recognized for his outstanding contribution to the field of Atomic Management, facilitating advanced technology, his tireless efforts to promote science through Tamil, and a role model for students from the roots of this nation that is villages, and his contribution to Indian society.

Born Feb. 21, 1934, in Tirumangalam, India, Jay just celebrated his 90th birthday.

He studied mechanical engineering from 1952-56 at the Coimbatore Government Engineering College, and graduated with honours, receiving the silver medal for his academic achievement.

In 1957, he got his break to work in the nuclear industry at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre near Mumbai, India. He operated and commissioned the Canada India Reactor Utility Services (CIRUS) research reactor and learned about isotopes and nuclear power.

His writing career began at this time when he published his first book about Atomic Energy for creative uses, highlighting the medical use of isotopes. He received an award from the Madras University for this book and it was used as a reference book at the university.

In September, 1966, India sent a group of engineers to Canada to train them on the CANDU power technology. He was selected to be trained on the fuelling machines at the Douglas Point reactor, located at the Bruce Nuclear Power Development, north of the Town of Kincardine.

The fuelling machine is one of the most complex and precise machines that fuels the reactor channels with natural uranium and then removes the irradiated fuel bundles to be stored in the spent fuel bay. He remained in Port Elgin until January, 1970, and his wife and two daughters joined him in his last year of training. The community of Bruce County and its people left a lasting impression on him.

Jay returned to India as the maintenance superintendent at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Plant until 1978. He then went to work at the Kalpakkam Atomic Power Plant as the technical superintendent.

In 1982, he made the decision to move to Canada with his family and work in bigger 800-megawatt (MW) CANDU plants at the Bruce “A” nuclear generating station, as the technical lead for fuelling machines. He made a new home for his family in Kincardine and fell in love with Canada and its people. He brought his two teenage daughters who graduated from Canadian universities and found careers in medical science and engineering.

His technical career in the nuclear industry came to a conclusion after 42 years, in 1999, when he chose to retire and dedicate his life to pursue his passion for Tamil literature by writing science articles related to space, scientists and the environment, translating Bernard Shaw plays, translating Emily Dickinson poems and Rabindranath Tagore’s writings.

Jay has written more than 1,000 science articles in Tamil in Thinnai.com and has his own website where his writings in Tamil have been preserved and read by more than one-million people of South Asian decent. His love for writing in Tamil and making the wonders of science, literature and poetry accessible to a larger group of people, has been his passion for the past 24 years.

He has spent endless hours researching articles in books and on the Internet and then finding ways to simplify the technical writing so that it is understood by a wider audience and inspires that group to pursue science and literature.

His major contribution toward developing excellence in arts, science and culture is through his several Tamil translations which will be his legacy for the current and future generations to appreciate.

His wife, Thasarata, died in 2018, and with his health failing, Jay decided to move to Rosewood RVilla in Ripley last year. Besides his two daughters and their husbands, he has four grandchildren.

Jay said the lifetime achievement award is the greatest honour he has ever received.

“It’s like a mini-Nobel Prize,” he joked.

Unable to travel by plane, he attended the presentation at 2 a.m. via Zoom, watching his two nephews receive the plaque on his behalf. They then mailed it to him.

“I am truly honoured to be recognized by both India and Canada,” said Jay. “I was thrilled to become a Canadian citizen, and to share my knowledge between both countries.”

Gord Austman of Kincardine remembers when Jay came to Canada in 1967 to train at Douglas Point. “His family joined him in 1969, dramatically arriving at Pearson Airport in the midst of a snowstorm.”

Austman’s father, Vern, moved to India in 1970, accompanied by his family, and led the team of Canadians and their Indian colleagues, including Jay, that started the reactor.

“In 1982, when Ontario Hydro was hiring overseas to help staff the many new reactors that were soon coming on-line, my father suggested to Jay that he apply,” recalls Austman. “Jay did so and was successful. He joined the team at Bruce “A” where he remained until he retired. He and I actually ended up working in the same department when I moved up from Toronto due to a reorganization in 1993-94.

“We have been blessed to have Jay and his family as a colleague and friends these past 57 years. This lifetime achievement award is well-deserved.”