India Does Not Lag in Developing Thorium-Fueled Nuclear Reactors

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Other Sources, RTGs, Sea Water, Thorium, Helium-3, & Fusion Research

Date posted: 05/29/16

Biswajit Choudhury reports that there is a misconception that the Indian atomic energy program has been slow in developing breeder reactors that will be fueled by the Indian vast thorium deposits, a foremost nuclear expert says. Former Atomic Energy Commission chairman and ex-secretary Department of Atomic Energy, M.R. SrinivasanIndia said that they have not been slow in developing next generation nuclear reactors that would use thorium as a fuel. Such notions are misconceived. No one in the world is ahead of us in this direction, he told IANS. Describing the claims in this regard as publicity seeking, Srinivasan spoke of the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) as the latest Indian design for a next-generation nuclear reactor. In its final stages of development, the AHWR is being tested at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai as part of the third stage of India nuclear energy program, which envisages the use of thorium fuel cycles for generating commercial power. Using thorium is a time-consuming process. By itself it is not a fuel, it is a potential fuel placed in the reactor and some other fissile material is needed to convert it into Uranium 233, he pointed out. The AHWR will be fueled by a mix of uranium-233 converted from thorium, and plutonium. Uranium-233 is the reactor fuel for this third stage of the Indian nuclear power program. The Advanced Heavy Water Reactor design has been made and it will start work next year, Srinivasan said. The AHWRs are expected to shorten the period of achieving large-scale utilization of thorium. A second version of the AHWR, being tested, will use low enriched uranium along with thorium. Indian thorium deposits, estimated at 360,000 tonnes, far outweigh its natural uranium deposits at 70,000 tonnes. The thorium reserves make up about 25% of the global reserves, but this may by low. India currently has a large data base and experimental information on thorium.