India 's nuclear programme started on March 1944 and its three-stage efforts in technology were established by Dr. Homi Bhabha when he founded the nuclear research centre, the Institute of Fundamental Research. Bhabha drew up the blue print of the nuclear energy programme in India. Based on early geological surveys, he decided that the vast deposits of thorium in the monazite sands of Kerala could be harnessed for securing India’s long-term energy needs. Thorium is particularly attractive for India, as it has only around 1–2% of the global uranium reserves, but one of the largest shares of global thorium reserves at about 25% of the world 's known thorium reserves.
As per the World Nuclear Association,
India has a flourishing and largely indigenous nuclear power programme and expects to have 14.6 GWe nuclear capacity on line by 2024 and 63 GWe by 2032. It aims to supply 25% of electricity from nuclear power by 2050. Because India is outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty due to its weapons programme, it was for 34 years largely excluded from trade in nuclear plant or materials, which has hampered its development of civil nuclear energy until 2009. Due to earlier trade bans and lack of indigenous uranium, India has uniquely been developing a nuclear fuel cycle to exploit its reserves of thorium. Since 2010, a fundamental incompatibility between India’s civil liability law and international conventions limits foreign technology provision. India has a vision of becoming a world leader in nuclear technology due to its expertise in fast reactors and thorium fuel cycle. The stage 1 of this three stage programme includes Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) which use natural uranium-based fuels to generate electricity. They also produce fissile Pu-239, which can be extracted by reprocessing the spent fuel. In stage 2, Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR) using Pu-based fuels can be used to enhance nuclear power capacity and further, to convert fertile thorium into uranium (U-233). Reprocessing of the spent fuel is vital for efficient utilization of the available plutonium inventory. The 3rd and final stage envisages the U-233 produced from the 2nd stage to be used in advanced thermal and fast breeder reactors. In addition, fissile isotopes can be produced by Accelerator-driven Sub-critical Reactor (ADS) systems. It is widely believed that in the long term, nuclear power employing closed fuel cycle is the only sustainable option for meeting a major part of the world energy demand. World resources of thorium are larger than those of uranium. Thorium, therefore, is widely viewed as the ‘fuel of the future’. Beach sands of India contain rich deposits of monazite (thorium ore), ilmenite, zircon, etc. The total minerals established so far include about 8 million tonnes of monazite. Monazite which contains about 9% ThO2 and 0.35% U3O8, is a phosphate of thorium, uranium and rare earth elements. Thorium is extracted with trace uranium as by-product. Advantages of thorium fuel cycle is that using external fissile material U-235, plutonium or an accelerator driven neutron source, thorium can sustain a thermal breeding cycle. …show more content…
The cycle produces virtually no plutonium. The waste products contain low amount of long-lived alpha-emitters. This also reduces the risk of proliferation which is a major concern with uranium based reactors. The Indian Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is designed and developed to achieve large-scale use of thorium for the generation of commercial nuclear power. This reactor will produce most of its power from thorium, avoiding any external input of uranium-233, in the equilibrium cycle. …show more content…
Thorium is also an ideal host for disposition of weapons grade plutonium. It is also possible to derive these advantages using thorium in existing reactor designs. Heavy water moderated lattices offer best characteristics for utilization of thorium. In particular, the used of Pu(RG) and thorium in 220MWe PHWRs offers an attractive option for near-term deployment in several regions of the world. However, presently thorium is not economically viable as global uranium prices are much lower, but for a country like India with vast resources of thorium compared to negligible uranium resources, this seems as an effective option. To sum up, the Thorium programme being pursued by India can be instrumental in ending the nation’s energy woes and also showing the world a path towards safe, greener and efficient energy production from atomic
As per the World Nuclear Association,
India has a flourishing and largely indigenous nuclear power programme and expects to have 14.6 GWe nuclear capacity on line by 2024 and 63 GWe by 2032. It aims to supply 25% of electricity from nuclear power by 2050. Because India is outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty due to its weapons programme, it was for 34 years largely excluded from trade in nuclear plant or materials, which has hampered its development of civil nuclear energy until 2009. Due to earlier trade bans and lack of indigenous uranium, India has uniquely been developing a nuclear fuel cycle to exploit its reserves of thorium. Since 2010, a fundamental incompatibility between India’s civil liability law and international conventions limits foreign technology provision. India has a vision of becoming a world leader in nuclear technology due to its expertise in fast reactors and thorium fuel cycle. The stage 1 of this three stage programme includes Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) which use natural uranium-based fuels to generate electricity. They also produce fissile Pu-239, which can be extracted by reprocessing the spent fuel. In stage 2, Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR) using Pu-based fuels can be used to enhance nuclear power capacity and further, to convert fertile thorium into uranium (U-233). Reprocessing of the spent fuel is vital for efficient utilization of the available plutonium inventory. The 3rd and final stage envisages the U-233 produced from the 2nd stage to be used in advanced thermal and fast breeder reactors. In addition, fissile isotopes can be produced by Accelerator-driven Sub-critical Reactor (ADS) systems. It is widely believed that in the long term, nuclear power employing closed fuel cycle is the only sustainable option for meeting a major part of the world energy demand. World resources of thorium are larger than those of uranium. Thorium, therefore, is widely viewed as the ‘fuel of the future’. Beach sands of India contain rich deposits of monazite (thorium ore), ilmenite, zircon, etc. The total minerals established so far include about 8 million tonnes of monazite. Monazite which contains about 9% ThO2 and 0.35% U3O8, is a phosphate of thorium, uranium and rare earth elements. Thorium is extracted with trace uranium as by-product. Advantages of thorium fuel cycle is that using external fissile material U-235, plutonium or an accelerator driven neutron source, thorium can sustain a thermal breeding cycle. …show more content…
The cycle produces virtually no plutonium. The waste products contain low amount of long-lived alpha-emitters. This also reduces the risk of proliferation which is a major concern with uranium based reactors. The Indian Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is designed and developed to achieve large-scale use of thorium for the generation of commercial nuclear power. This reactor will produce most of its power from thorium, avoiding any external input of uranium-233, in the equilibrium cycle. …show more content…
Thorium is also an ideal host for disposition of weapons grade plutonium. It is also possible to derive these advantages using thorium in existing reactor designs. Heavy water moderated lattices offer best characteristics for utilization of thorium. In particular, the used of Pu(RG) and thorium in 220MWe PHWRs offers an attractive option for near-term deployment in several regions of the world. However, presently thorium is not economically viable as global uranium prices are much lower, but for a country like India with vast resources of thorium compared to negligible uranium resources, this seems as an effective option. To sum up, the Thorium programme being pursued by India can be instrumental in ending the nation’s energy woes and also showing the world a path towards safe, greener and efficient energy production from atomic