Related Research Articles
A nuclear reactor, formerly known as an atomic pile, is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid, which in turn runs through steam turbines. These either drive a ship's propellers or turn electrical generators' shafts. Nuclear generated steam in principle can be used for industrial process heat or for district heating. Some reactors are used to produce isotopes for medical and industrial use, or for production of weapons-grade plutonium. As of early 2019, the IAEA reports there are 454 nuclear power reactors and 226 nuclear research reactors in operation around the world.
A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile material, such as uranium-238 or thorium-232 that is loaded into the reactor along with fissile fuel. Breeders were at first found attractive because they made more complete use of uranium fuel than light water reactors, but interest declined after the 1960s as more uranium reserves were found, and new methods of uranium enrichment reduced fuel costs.
Kalpakkam is a town in Tamil Nadu, India, situated on the Coromandel Coast 70 kilometres south of Chennai. A conglomerate of two villages and a DAE township, it is about 55 kilometres (34 mi) from Thiruvanmiyur and 85 kilometres (53 mi) from Pondicherry. This coastal town is humid. Summers here prevail from early March till late May. Temperatures in the Summer vary from 32 degrees Celsius and can go up to 41 degrees Celsius. There is no particular Monsoon season for Kalpakkam as rains are unpredictable here, although there is heavy rainfall in the months of October and November, usually turning into a storm. The coolest months are December and January. A study by the Madras Atomic Power Station(MAPS) revealed that the pollution in Kalpakkam is very low, which when compared to the neighbouring city Chennai is 50 times less.
Anil Kakodkar is an Indian nuclear physicist and mechanical engineer. He was the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and the Secretary to the Government of India, he was the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay from 1996–2000. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, on 26 January 2009.
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's premier nuclear research facility, headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra. In 1966 after the sad demise of Mr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha AEET renamed as Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) BARC is a multi-disciplinary research centre with extensive infrastructure for advanced research and development covering the entire spectrum of nuclear science, engineering and related areas.
Uranium-233 (233U) is a fissile isotope of uranium that is bred from thorium-232 as part of the thorium fuel cycle. Uranium-233 was investigated for use in nuclear weapons and as a reactor fuel. It has been used successfully in experimental nuclear reactors and has been proposed for much wider use as a nuclear fuel. It has a half-life of 160,000 years.
Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research(IGCAR) is one of India's premier nuclear research centres. It is the second largest establishment of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), next to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), located at Kalpakkam, 80 km south of Chennai, India. It was established in 1971 as an exclusive centre dedicated to the pursuit of fast reactor science and technology, due to the vision of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. Originally, it was called as Reactor Research Centre (RRC). It was renamed as Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research(IGCAR) by the then Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi in December 1985. The centre is engaged in broad-based multidisciplinary programme of scientific research and advanced engineering directed towards the development of Fast Breeder Reactor technology, in India.
The thorium fuel cycle is a nuclear fuel cycle that uses an isotope of thorium, 232
Th
, as the fertile material. In the reactor, 232
Th
is transmuted into the fissile artificial uranium isotope 233
U
which is the nuclear fuel. Unlike natural uranium, natural thorium contains only trace amounts of fissile material, which are insufficient to initiate a nuclear chain reaction. Additional fissile material or another neutron source is necessary to initiate the fuel cycle. In a thorium-fuelled reactor, 232
Th
absorbs neutrons to produce 233
U
. This parallels the process in uranium breeder reactors whereby fertile 238
U
absorbs neutrons to form fissile 239
Pu
. Depending on the design of the reactor and fuel cycle, the generated 233
U
either fissions in situ or is chemically separated from the used nuclear fuel and formed into new nuclear fuel.
The advanced heavy-water reactor (AHWR) or AHWR-300 is the latest Indian design for a next-generation nuclear reactor that burns thorium in its fuel core. It is slated to form the third stage in India's three-stage fuel-cycle plan. This phase of the fuel cycle plan is supposed to be built starting with a 300MWe prototype in 2016. As of 2018 construction has not started and a firm date has not be set.
The Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) is a breeder reactor located at Kalpakkam, India. The Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research (IGCAR) and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) jointly designed, constructed, and operate the reactor.
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is a department under the Prime Minister of India with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. DAE was established in 1954 by a Presidential Order. DAE has been engaged in the development of nuclear power technology, applications of radiation technologies in the fields of agriculture, medicine, industry and basic research. DAE comprises five research centres, three industrial organisations, five public sector undertakings and three service organisations. It has under its aegis two boards for promoting and funding extramural research in nuclear and allied fields, mathematics and a national institute. It also supports eight institutes of international repute engaged in research in basic sciences, astronomy, astrophysics, cancer research and education. It also has in its fold an educational society that provides educational facilities for children of DAE employees. The important programmes of the DAE are directed towards:
The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is a 500 MWe fast breeder nuclear reactor presently being constructed at the Madras Atomic Power Station in Kalpakkam, India. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) is responsible for the design of this reactor. The facility builds on the decades of experience gained from operating the lower power Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR). Originally planned to be commissioned in 2012, the construction of the reactor suffered from multiple delays. As of August 2020, criticality is planned to be achieved in 2021.
Nuclear power is the fifth-largest source of electricity in India after coal, gas, hydroelectricity and wind power. As of November 2020, India has 22 nuclear reactors in operation in 7 nuclear power plants, with a total installed capacity of 6,780 MW. Nuclear power produced a total of 35 TWh and supplied 3.22% of Indian electricity in 2017. 7 more reactors are under construction with a combined generation capacity of 4,300 MW.
India's three-stage nuclear power programme was formulated by Homi Bhabha in the 1950s to secure the country's long term energy independence, through the use of uranium and thorium reserves found in the monazite sands of coastal regions of South India. The ultimate focus of the programme is on enabling the thorium reserves of India to be utilised in meeting the country's energy requirements. 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. However, thorium is more difficult to use than uranium as a fuel because it requires breeding, and global uranium prices remain low enough that breeding is not cost effective.
Shivram Baburao Bhoje is a distinguished Indian nuclear scientist who worked in the field of fast-breeder nuclear reactor technology for forty years in the design, construction, operation, and research and development. Indian government has honoured him with Padma Shri in 2003, the fourth highest civilian award in India, for his distinguished service to science and engineering fields.
Thorium-based nuclear power generation is fueled primarily by the nuclear fission of the isotope uranium-233 produced from the fertile element thorium. According to proponents, a thorium fuel cycle offers several potential advantages over a uranium fuel cycle—including much greater abundance of thorium found on Earth, superior physical and nuclear fuel properties, and reduced nuclear waste production. However, development of thorium power has significant start-up costs. Proponents also cite the low weaponization potential as an advantage of thorium due to how difficult it is to weaponize the specific uranium-233/232 and plutonium-238 isotopes produced by thorium reactors, while critics say that development of breeder reactors in general increases proliferation concerns. Between 1999 and 2021, the number of operational thorium reactors in the world has risen from zero, to a handful of research reactors, to commercial plans for producing full-scale thorium-based reactors for use as power plants on a national scale.
Chaitanyamoy Ganguly is an Indian nuclear scientist and a former Head of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Materials Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), credited with many innovations in the field of nuclear material science. He was honored by the Government of India, in 2002, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.
The Fast Breeder Reactor-600 (FBR-600) or Commercial Fast Breeder Reactor (CFBR) is a 600 MWe fast breeder nuclear reactor presently being constructed. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) is responsible for the design of this reactor as a successor for Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR). The 1st twin unit would come up at Kalpakkam, close to the PFBR site itself.
Chokkanathapuram Venkataraman Sundaram (1929–2008) was an Indian chemical metallurgist, best known for the commissioning of the Fast Breeder Test Reactor at Kalpakkam. He was the director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR). He was a recipient of the Sanjay Gandhi Award for Science and Technology as well as the National Metallurgists Day Award and an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, in 1986.
Narayanan Srinivasan (1930–2014) was an Indian nuclear scientist and the founder project director of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR). One of the pioneers of atomic energy program in India, he served as the design engineer for the plutonium plant at Trombay, as the project director of IGCAR at Kalpakkam, as the chief executive of Heavy Water Board and later the Nuclear Fuel Complex, and sat in the Atomic Energy Commission of India from 1982 to 1987. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, in 2003. He was also a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Department of Atomic Energy which he received in 2009. Srinivasan died on May 18, 2014, at Chennai, at the age of 84.
References
- ↑ "India: Experimental thorium reactor critical". Wise International. 13 November 1996. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
- ↑ "Applications of KAMINI - The Reactor". Archived from the original on 5 February 2012.
- ↑ "IGCAR Repocessing Group". Archived from the original on 18 July 2014.
