India's Thorium based nuclear power programme

Thorium Based NPP
Thorium plays a pivotal role in Indian Nuclear power program, in fact, right at the beginning of our nuclear power program, use of thorium as an energy source has been contemplated during the third phase. Right from the inception of Indian nuclear power program, work has been carried out on various aspects of thorium utilization-mining and extraction of thorium, fuel fabrication and irradiation in rectors, reprocessing and refabrication. In addition studies are underway for utilization of thorium in different types of reactors. This information was revealed by Minister of State in PMO Shri V Narayansamy in reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

The Minister said that India has vast reserves of Thorium. Total estimated reserves of monazite in India are about 10.7 million tones (containing about 0.84 million tones of thorium metal) occurring in beach and river sands in association with other heavy minerals. Out of nearly 100 deposits of the heavy minerals at present only 17 deposits containing about ~ 4 million tones of monazite have been identified as exploitable. Mineable reserves are ~70 % of identified exploitable resources. Therefore, about 2,25,000 tonnes of thorium metal is available for nuclear power program.

Stating further on the question Shri V Narayansamy revealed that the third stage of Indian nuclear power program contemplates making use of Uranium-233 to fuel Uranium-233 –Thorium based rectors, which can provide energy independence to the country for several centuries. This will avoid the dependency on coal and natural gas.

The Minister informed the members that the use of Thorium as an energy source has been contemplated during the third phase of our nuclear power program. Right from the inception of Indian nuclear power program, work has been carried on various aspects of thorium utilization-mining and extraction of thorium, fuel fabrication, irradiation in reactors, reprocessing and refabrication. In addition, studies are underway for utilization of thorium in different types of reactors.

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Hope we have started prototype work on an Accelerator driven system.

Press Information Bureau English Releases

the pace is very very slow..Prices of crude oil are soaring day by day making our survival difficult due to balance of payment issue"¦and we are still not able commercialize what we have the most"¦coal, solar and thorium"¦.Its so sad, I don't blame the talent of our scientist (though I don't rule out we don't have the best scientist working on strategic and complex R&D projects) "¦ I am damn sure we don't have the right people at the right place doing the deserving work"¦may be need to ramp up our investment on R&D, if required hire people from top international universities"¦and please DON'T talk about QUOTA system in R&D projects too!

addiction said:

the pace is very very slow..Prices of crude oil are soaring day by day making our survival difficult due to balance of payment issue"¦and we are still not able commercialize what we have the most"¦coal, solar and thorium"¦.Its so sad, I don't blame the talent of our scientist (though I don't rule out we don't have the best scientist working on strategic and complex R&D projects) "¦ I am damn sure we don't have the right people at the right place doing the deserving work"¦may be need to ramp up our investment on R&D, if required hire people from top international universities"¦and please DON'T talk about QUOTA system in R&D projects too!

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Not only I agree, but I also feel there is technology already well developed internationally. Could we not get this know how as a part of huge defence deals?

panduranghari said:

Not only I agree, but I also feel there is technology already well developed internationally. Could we not get this know how as a part of huge defence deals?

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The French MRCA victory will give India access to Areva's latest technology.

A New Nuclear Age: Thorium Powered Nuclear Plant to be Built in India

Thorium Powered Nuclear Plant to be Built in India

The Guardian in the UK is reporting that India has started the process of building the world's newest thorium fueled prototype nuclear power plant. As prototypes go, this is a big one with a proposed rating at 300MW or about 30% of a customary 1GW uranium fueled station. This commitment deserves congratulations. Finally thorium has a toehold on the world power generation markets and its far less worrisome than a uranium solution.

In a rare interview, Ratan Kumar Sinha, the director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai, told the Guardian that his team is finalizing the site for construction of the new large-scale experimental reactor, while at the same time conducting "confirmatory tests" on the design saying, "The basic physics and engineering of the thorium-fuelled Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) are in place, and the design is ready."

Once the six-month search for a site is completed – probably next to an existing nuclear power plant – it will take another 18 months to obtain regulatory and environmental impact clearances before building work on the site can begin.

Sinha continues, "Construction of the AHWR will begin after that, and it would take another six years for the reactor to become operational," meaning that if all goes to plan, the reactor could be operational by the end of the decade.

For decades the development of workable and large-scale thorium reactors has been a dream for nuclear engineers, while for environmentalists it has become a major hope as an alternative to fossil fuels.

In the U.S. Kirk Sorenson is at work promoting a firm named Flibe Energy that will initially design, develop and demonstrate a small modular liquid-fluoride thorium reactor for the US military at a designed power level of 20 to 50MWe. Sorenson's firm is headed to factory-produced and modular design with lower capital costs by using gas turbine equipment. Flibe offers extremely low fuel-cycle costs through use of thorium in a liquid fluoride form.



Sinha says that if all goes to plan, the Indian thorium fueled reactor could be operational by the end of the decade.

Producing a workable thorium reactor would be a massive breakthrough in electric power generation. Using thorium – a naturally occurring moderately radioactive element named after the Norse god of thunder – as a source of atomic power is not new technology. The U.S. did promising early research in the 1950s to 1970s only to shelve the effort in favor of the uranium fuel that produced weapons supplies in the spent fuel.

India has the among world's largest thorium deposits, and with a world hungry for low-carbon energy, it has its eye on a potentially lucrative export market for the technology. For more than three decades, India's nuclear research program had been subject to international sanctions since its controversial 1974 nuclear tests. But after losing its pariah status three years ago as a result of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, India is eager to export indigenous nuclear technology developed in research centers such as the BARC.

Its not all perfect, thorium reactors won't start without a tiny bit of trigger fuel, like uranium or plutonium. But the thorium reactors spent fuel wouldn't have any more trigger fuel than when started and that would be well burned through.

The Indian effort is using low-enriched uranium – which India is permitted to import under the 2008 Indo-US deal. The new reactor has the design flexibility for using trigger fuel or either plutonium or low-enriched uranium. This approach sets a very highly marketable standard with many more potential customers.

India's low-enriched uranium/thorium fuel combination design is currently at pilot stage and is at work setting up for testing the fuel combination.

This should be a wake up call to the rest of the nuclear power industry. There is a huge market out there and thorium fueled reactors offer nearly no weapons proliferation risk and the spend fuel risk is managed over decades instead of hundred of centuries.

And the power could be very, very cheap for consumers.

Along with the congratulations, we're sending along encouragement. Failing dirt-cheap fusion in the future, thorium offers centuries of low risk low cost power for billions of people. It's time for billions of them to wake up and take notice.

Schematic of the Fast Breeder Reactor Fuel Cycle

India won't pull back on nuclear ambitions : Nature News & Comment

India won't pull back on nuclear ambitions


Atomic-energy boss Ratan Kumar Sinha says country is on track to meet nuclear goals.

K. S. Jayaraman
29 May 2012

Ratan Kumar Sinha says India is forging ahead with its plans for nuclear power plants.

Ratan Kumar Sinha became chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on 30 April. A mechanical engineer and reactor designer, Sinha also heads the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai, where research activities include weapons-related work. He tells Nature that neither the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan last year nor protests over safety at home have slowed India's nuclear programme: all efforts are being made to meet the country's goal of generating 63 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2032, he says.

What are your goals and challenges as head of the AEC?
My dream is to have long-term energy independence for India through a mixture of energy options, including nuclear energy. The challenge is building a large number of nuclear power plants across the country close to population centres, while meeting high safety standards. I also dream of substantial growth in the application of radioisotopes and particle-accelerator technologies in agriculture, health care and industry.

What was the impact of Japan's Fukushima accident on India's nuclear programme?
We did a safety review of our plants, and concluded that existing designs are adequate to address external events such as tsunami and earthquakes. Even so, a few extra measures to introduce cooling water into the reactor from external sources, wherever needed, have been implemented or are under implementation.

India's nuclear power plants will use foreign-built reactors, but there have been delays in importing them. Will this cause you to revise the 63-gigawatt target?
No. At the moment we are not contemplating a revision in the target. There have been some delays in initiating the work on the ground, but significant progress has been made with international agreements and the domestic framework. We are hoping to launch the imported reactors during the period of India's current five-year plan (2012–17), and are simultaneously starting work on several indigenous reactors. The government has already approved enough sites 'in principle' to reach about 58 gigawatts.

What are the remaining hurdles?
Acquisition of land and relocation of people at some of the new sites, as well as resolution of matters related to the legal framework for vendors in India. Discussions on techno-commercial offers for two reactors in Kudankulam (with the Russian nuclear company Atomstroyexport) and another two in Jaitapur (with French energy company Areva) have reached an advanced stage. Discussions with two US vendors — Westinghouse Electric and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy — are in progress. We are also working towards augmenting investment opportunities by incorporating joint ventures between the Nuclear Power Corporation of India and other public-sector companies. International cooperation of this magnitude in the nuclear field has been a first-time experience for us and it has, perhaps predictably, taken time to establish the rules. Hopefully, further progress will be faster.

What is the status of India's thorium programme?
We are in the process of identifying a site for the advanced heavy water reactor, which will produce most of its power from thorium. We are also doing research into optimizing thorium fuel-cycle technologies, including ways to recycle thorium-based spent fuel.

What are India's contributions to international projects?
Indian laboratories including BARC have been collaborating on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. India is also a member of the nuclear-fusion project ITER, for which we are participating in the fabrication of the largest cryostat in the world and all the associated components. Indian scientists and engineers are working on a Test Blanket Module for breeding tritium by nuclear transmutation under fusion neutron flux in ITER. These breeder blankets could establish the technical feasibility of heat extraction and tritium recovery.

You lead both India's civilian nuclear programme and a nuclear-weapons lab. How do you keep the two programmes separate?
A separation plan has been formulated as part of the international civil nuclear-cooperation agreement. India has adopted the plan, meeting all its commitments.

Nature doi:10.1038/nature.2012.10735

It is interesting that 63GigaWatt nuclear power target by 2032. What will be the estimated national power consumption (inclusive of all types of power generation) at this period? Basically what I am asking is, what percentage will be the nuclear contribution to power generation in 2032?

63 gigawat can only be a dream unless the protest against nuclear power stops and barc produces higher output reactors.with a 4 gw installed capacity in 2012 we have less than 20% output compared to china's 3 gorges dam and nuclear power is still an experimental programme in india as presently it produces similar outputs like solar energy.

India to launch 16 new nuclear reactors - Sci/Tech - DNA

India to launch 16 new nuclear reactors.


The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) will launch 16 reactors at an outlay of Rs.2.3 trillion ($40 billion) during the 12th Plan period (2012-17), a top official of the atomic power operator said.

"We have to launch eight 700 MW pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) and eight light water reactors (LWRs) involving a total outlay of Rs.230,000 crore (Rs.2.3 trillion). The LWRs will be from foreign companies," S.K. Jain, who retired Thursday as NPCIL chairman and managing director, told IANS in an interview.

According to him, the eight 700 MW PHWRs would come up at Kaiga in Karnataka, Gorakhpur in Haryana's Fatehabad district, Banswada in Rajasthan and Chutka in Madhya Pradesh.

The 16 reactors are in addition to NPCIL's four 700 MW PHWRs under construction - two at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (units 7 and 8) and two at Kakrapara in Gujarat - at an outlay of Rs.22,000 crore.

The NPCIL currently generates 4,780 MW of power. The new additions of 4,800 will take this to 9,580 MW. A 500 MW reactor to be commissioned by another company, Bhavini, will take India's installed nuclear power capacity to 10,080 MW by the end of the 12th Plan.

This will be three percent of the 300,000 MW generation capacity planned by 2017. India currently generates a little less than 200,000 MW of power.

Jain, who had a long stint as the NPCIL head, added that raising funds will not be an issue for the projects.

"NPCIL is sitting on Rs.15,000 crore which we call as cash for investment. In addition, the company has entered into joint ventures with NTPC, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) and Nalco for setting up nuclear power plants. Each one of them is a giant in its own field.

On the strength of these companies' balance sheets, additional funds of Rs.40,000 crore could be raised and with NPCIL's internal accruals, a total of Rs.80,000 crore could be mobilised, Jain said.

"Eighteen overseas banks have come out for arranging debt to NPCIL's expression of interest that was floated recently. Four have said they would underwrite the entire debt funding for our projects," Jain said.

According to him the company is looking at external commercial borrowings (ECBs) and export credit agencies (ECA) for funds and over a month ago, NPCIL raised $250 million through ECBs.

He said three public-private-partnership joint venture companies have been incorporated and the projects would be soon allotted for them after the Atomic Energy Act is amended to allow such tie-ups in the nuclear field.

Referring to the two equipment joint ventures that NPCIL has entered into, Jain said the company has tied up site, money and technology and is all set to progress further.

NPCIL has entered into a three-way joint venture with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) and Alstom for manufacturing turbines for the 700MW PHWRs.

"As far as PHWRs are concerned, we have now finalised that the minimum size would be 700 MW. In the future we may also make the turbines at this plant for imported reactors," he added.

The atomic power plant operator has another joint venture with Larsen and Toubro for making forgings for nuclear power plants.

While Jain was silent on the fuel position, industry officials told IANS that the domestic fuel situation is comfortable for NPCIL as it will be getting 60 percent more uranium for powering four new reactors.

‘India largest producer of heavy water’

'India largest producer of heavy water'


Bangalore, April 20, DHNS:
India has not only mastered the complex technology of heavy water production making it self-reliant, but also exports high quality heavy water to countries like Republic of Korea and the United States, said A L N Rao, Chairman and Chief Executive, Heavy Water Board on Monday.

Heavy Water (D2O) is a compound of an isotope of hydrogen called heavy hydrogen or Deuterium (D) and oxygen. Heavy water reactors use heavy water as a neutron moderator.
On the occasion of its anniversary celebrations of the Heavy Water Board at Indian Institute of Science here, he gave a detailed exposition of the activities and development of the water board since its inception in November 1954.

Multiple technologies

"Presently, India is the largest producer of heavy water in the world and is the only country using multiple technologies for its production," he said.

He explained that development of heavy water process in India happened in three phases.
"The first phase (late1950s to mid 1980s) was a period of technology development, the second phase was of deployment of technology and process stabilisation (mid 1980s to early 1990s) and third phase saw consolidation and a paradigm shift towards improvement in production and energy conservation," he explained.

India needs to wait for few decades to use thorium in reactor - Sci/Tech - DNA



India needs to wait for few decades to use thorium in reactor.


Describing India as self-reliant in nuclear technology, Atomic Energy Commission on Wednesday said the country has to wait for a few more decades to use thorium as the base for nuclear reactors.

"Using thorium as the base for reactors will take time. We have to wait a few decades to make it possible," Atomic Energy Commission Chairman R K Sinha said.

While the first atomic power station at Tarapur was designed, constructed and commissioned by a US company on a turn-key basis, the second nuclear power station in Rajasthan was taken up as a joint Indo-Canadian venture.

Subsequent to the unilateral action by Canada to terminate the cooperation agreement, completion of the second unit at Rajasthan was accomplished indigenously, Sinha said on the sidelines of the graduating ceremony of National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) here.

The third nuclear power station at Chennai was set up entirely by Indian engineers and scientists.

"This is sufficient to claim that country is self-reliant in nuclear technology," the AEC chairman said.

Replying a question on the possible use of thorium as the base for the nuclear reactors, he said the country needs to wait.

"We have designed a reactor," he said.

On opposition to nuclear installations, Sinha said, "This is a passing phenomenon. This will happen as people have both expectations and apprehensions over nuclear projects."

Expectations are more beneficial for local people while apprehension remains about what will exactly happen if such a project comes up in their vicinity, Sinha pointed out.

"We are trying best to do it by educating people, expediting CSR activities, imparting education," he said.

Lauding the standard of research and development in the country, Sinha said India had been conducting very high quality research.

"We need to create opportunity for high standard research in India for the people working here and those who are interested to return," he said.

"There is nothing wrong in going abroad for research. But they should return after completion of work," he said.

He blamed it on the "peer pressure" for some researchers staying back in foreign countries after completion of research work.

It's on Molten Salts. We may have a molten salt reactor in the works too
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Dr. K.L. Ramakumar, Chairman, Conference Organizing Committee & Director, Radiochemistry & Isotope Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai welcomes all the researchers and scientists from all over the world to participate in the "Conference on Molten Salts in Nuclear Technology" at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India from January 9-11, 2013. The conference is being organized under the aegis of Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), Department of Atomic Energy, India to strengthen and share the knowledge about molten salt processes & technologies available to nuclear science and technology.

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Conference on Molten Salts in Nuclear Technology (CMSNT-2013) | Molten Salt India

Very encouraging news...

I had once read that we have large Thorium in the coastal sands of Rameshwaram...our Thorium stocks are so huge that we are like Arab country in Thorium...our leaders instead of buying Uranium from foreign countries should invest in Thorium based domestic nuclear reactors which will not only make us self sufficient in this field but will also save our money...even US and other foreign countries know this Indian potential and they are lobbying hard with our corrupt leaders to ignore our thorium and invest in buying uranium from them....

This Thorium reactor and energy production has just become talk and talk.

I wonder its just a scam where no third party (independent) is there to over look their progress and attest claims.

I hope our scientists are publishing scientific papers on this or just keeping this civil nuclear energy R&D secretive for no obvious reason.

India, Not America, May Lead in Thorium Energy

Excerpts:

Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive chemical element that is named after the Norse god of thunder, Thor. Discovered in 1828 by Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius, the 90th element on the periodic table has been described by Forbes as possibly "the biggest energy breakthrough since fire."

According to Greentech Media, Thorium has the potential to replace uranium as a ultra-cheap and ultra-safe nuclear energy source.
Not only is the metal approximately three times as abundant as uranium in the earth's crust, but it also contains up to 200 times the energy density.

Apart from India, China has also announced its intentions to develop a thorium nuclear reactor, while Canada, Germany, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States have all experimented with using thorium as a substitute nuclear fuel in existing nuclear reactors.
India's thorium plans though are possibly the most well known and most promising of them all"¦

India has the world's largest thorium deposits and with a world hungry for low-carbon energy, thorium can prove to be India's making.
"Quietly researching this fuel for decades, Indian scientists have waited for just the right moment to build their first thorium-powered nuclear reactor," she said, in a piece for the Huffington Post.

And then they screwed it up completely by saying :
If India does, in fact despite its problems, become a major lead of thorium technology, this could be a factor in the rise of the time of the Gentiles that the Bible tells of.
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India's per capita electricity consumption figure is expected to double by 2020, and reach 5000-6000 kWh by 2050, and the nation's supply of coal is unlikely to be able to match the demand.

But despite what the sceptics say, "given India's abundant supply of thorium it makes sense for her to develop thorium reactors," noted Baroness Worthington of the Weinberg Foundation, which promotes thorium-fuelled nuclear power.

Science writer Matthew Chalmers of Physics World also believes that India's energy future is unlikely to end at just thorium.

"In a modern context, Bhabha's nuclear vision is part of a wider goal for clean, affordable energy also in form of solar, wind and hydroelectricity - all of which India is investing in heavily," he wrote.

India has the world's largest thorium deposits and with a world hungry for low-carbon energy, thorium can prove to be India's making.

Angela Saini, author of Geek Nation: How Indian Science Is Taking Over The World believes that "no story quite captures India's remarkable power to think long-term quite like that of thorium."
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Bhabha baba ki Jai ho. Our Scientists are doing just fine, I wish such long term thinking were found among politicians as well.

Regards,
Virendra

Our scientists should all be called for a meeting in the capital where they are asked to form a consensus and write what they require and that must be given to them whether it is money, infrastructure etc. Scientist is the most important person in India imo.