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A nuclear reactor 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 2022, the International Atomic Energy Agency reports there are 422 nuclear power reactors and 223 nuclear research reactors in operation around the world.
The nuclear fuel cycle, also called nuclear fuel chain, is the progression of nuclear fuel through a series of differing stages. It consists of steps in the front end, which are the preparation of the fuel, steps in the service period in which the fuel is used during reactor operation, and steps in the back end, which are necessary to safely manage, contain, and either reprocess or dispose of spent nuclear fuel. If spent fuel is not reprocessed, the fuel cycle is referred to as an open fuel cycle ; if the spent fuel is reprocessed, it is referred to as a closed fuel cycle.
A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. These reactors can be fueled with more-commonly available isotopes of uranium and thorium, such as uranium-238 and thorium-232, as opposed to the rare uranium-235 which is used in conventional reactors. These materials are called fertile materials since they can be bred into fuel by these breeder reactors.
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 to 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, India. It was founded by Homi Jehangir Bhabha as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) in January 1954 as a multidisciplinary research program essential for India's nuclear program. It operates under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India.
Thorium-232 is the main naturally occurring isotope of thorium, with a relative abundance of 99.98%. It has a half life of 14 billion years, which makes it the longest-lived isotope of thorium. It decays by alpha decay to radium-228; its decay chain terminates at stable lead-208.
Uranium-233 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 Vikram Sarabhai. Originally, it was called Reactor Research Centre (RRC). It was renamed to 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.
Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) located at Kalpakkam about 80 kilometres (50 mi) south of Chennai, India, is a comprehensive nuclear power production, fuel reprocessing, and waste treatment facility that includes plutonium fuel fabrication for fast breeder reactors (FBRs). It is also India's first fully indigenously constructed nuclear power station, with two units each generating 220 MW of electricity. The first and second units of the station went critical in 1983 and 1985, respectively. The station has reactors housed in a reactor building with double shell containment improving protection also in the case of a loss-of-coolant accident. An Interim Storage Facility (ISF) is also located in Kalpakkam.
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 was supposed to be built starting with a 300 MWe prototype in 2016.
The Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) is a breeder reactor located at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, 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 an Indian government department with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. DAE was established in 1954 with Jawaharlal Nehru as its first minister and Homi Bhabha as its secretary.
The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is a 500 MWe sodium-cooled, fast breeder reactor that is being constructed at Kokkilamedu, near Kalpakkam, in Tamil Nadu state, India. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) is responsible for the design of this reactor, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre subsidary(Fuel Fabrication Facility - formerly Advanced Fuel Fabrication Facility)in Tarapur is responsible for crtical MOX fuel fabrication and BHEL is providing technology and equipment for construction of the reactor. The facility builds on the decades of experience gained from operating the lower power Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR). At first, the reactor's construction was supposed to be completed in September 2010, but there were several delays. The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor is scheduled to be put into service in December 2024, which is more than 20 years after construction began and 14 years after the original commissioning date, as of December 2023. The project's cost has doubled from ₹3,500 crore to ₹7,700 crore due to the multiple delays. The construction was completed on 4th March 2024 with commencement of core loading of the reactor hence paving the way for the eventual full utilization of India’s abundant thorium reserves.
Nuclear power is the fifth-largest source of electricity in India after coal, gas, hydroelectricity and wind power. As of November 2020, India has 23 nuclear reactors in operation in 8 nuclear power plants, with a total installed capacity of 7,380 MW. Nuclear power produced a total of 43 TWh in 2020–21, contributing 3.11% of total power generation in India. 10 more reactors are under construction with a combined generation capacity of 8,000 MW.
India's three-stage nuclear power programme was formulated by Homi Bhabha, the well-known physicist, 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 India 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. A thorium fuel cycle can offer several potential advantages over a uranium fuel cycle—including the much greater abundance of thorium found on Earth, superior physical and nuclear fuel properties, and reduced nuclear waste production. One advantage of thorium fuel is its low weaponization potential. It is difficult to weaponize the uranium-233 that is bred in the reactor. Plutonium-239 is produced at much lower levels and can be consumed in thorium reactors.
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 Indian Fast Breeder Reactor (IFBR) or Commercial Fast Breeder Reactor (CFBR) is a 600-MWe fast breeder nuclear reactor design presently being designed as part of India's three-stage nuclear power programme to commercialise the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor built at Kalpakkam. 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 within the BHAVINI premises at Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam, close to the PFBR site itself.
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.
- ↑ "Indian test reactor reaches operation landmark : New Nuclear - World Nuclear News". www.world-nuclear-news.org. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
