India's Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor will start operation in 2013. This 500 MW reactor will be the largest of its kind, and will put India into Phase-2 of its 3-Phase thorium program. The third and final phase will be when India has enough thorium-bred fuel to achieve full energy independence.
Meanwhile, other countries are also moving to do their own cutting-edge research projects relating to thorium energy, anticipating that it could solve the world's energy problems.
3 comments:
San
I never quite figured this out.
India's Thorium programme or nuclear programme in general is supposed to be based on pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) which I understand does not require refined fuel and can do with thorium also.
Whereas the light water reactors (LWRs) that the Europeans and Americans are trying to ram down our throats require refined fuel which we do not have.
So if you have a lot of LWRs then it makes sense to have a breeder reactor going which can take in unrefined fuel and turn it into refined fuel for use in the LWRs.
So India can become self reliant by having a combination of breeder reactors, thorium fuelled PHWRs and some LWRs.
Is this understanding correct?
I think the key is the thorium source - it is available in abundance and it removes the dependence on foreign sources. I remember that as a part of the nuclear agreement with US, India was to roll back its plans to further invest in thorium based reactors - one way or the other.
Stage-3 envisions India building and operating many AHWRs (Advanced Heavy Water Reactors) to generate power from the fuel bred by the Stage-2 breeder reactors, like the one mentioned in my post. India will be commencing construction of its first Stage-3 reactor fairly soon:
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/article2916878.ece
Stage-2 thorium breeder reactors create U-233, which is somewhat different than the U-235 used by LWRs.
The main challenge with Stage-3 is in fuel reprocessing, where you take the spent fuel from the Stage-2 breeder reactors and make it suitable for use in the Stage-3 reactors. For that, India is setting up a Fast-Reactor Fuel Cycle to take care of that part.
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