ATOMIC ENERGY IN INDIA

Atomic Energy has a key role in reducing the carbon intensity of the overall Power sector of India. Thermal power generation from all sources contributes 234,048 MW, which is 60% of the total installed power while renewables, hydro and nuclear contribute 95,875 MW (25%), 51,220 MW (13%) and 6,780 MW (up to 2%) respectively. Source National Power Portal.

While renewable sources of energy are environment friendly, they are intermittent sources of power. Nuclear power, being a non-intermittent and concentrated source of power with negligible carbon footprint, is an essential component of the Indian power-mix to meet the International environmental commitments of India.

India has limited domestic uranium resources while we have abundant Thorium. To exploit Thorium, our planners have envisaged the Three Stage Nuclear Power Program.

Indigenously built Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) form the backbone of the first stage Indian nuclear power program. PHWRs use domestic natural uranium (UO2) containing 0.7 % fissile 235U and 99.3% 238U as fuel and Heavy water as moderator and primary coolant.

Reprocessing of the spent fuel from PHWRs and waste management are important components of the three stage nuclear program. These technologies were developed with total indigenous efforts. Uranium and Plutonium are chemically separated and recycled, while the other radioactive fission products were separated and sorted according to their half lives and radioactivity and stored with minimal environmental impact.

239Pu extracted from the spent fuel serves as the fuel for the Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs) – part of the second stage of the nuclear program. FBR fuel is so designed that a blanket of 238U surrounds fuel core. 238U undergoes transmutation to produce fresh 239Pu. Thus an FBR not only consumes 239Pu but also breeds more 239Pu than it consumes. But FBR technology is very complex and only advanced countries like USA, UK, France, Japan and USSR have mastered this technology.

India announced its entry into this exclusive club when the 40 MWth Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) went critical in the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam in October 1985. A unique feature the FBTR is the indigenously developed U-Pu carbide fuel rich in Pu. With the operational experience gained from FBTR, India embarked upon the construction of a 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).

232Th, which is abundant in India, is not a fissile material. However, by a neutron capture reaction, 232Th transforms into 233U, which is a fissile material like 235U and 239Pu. The strategy of the three stage program is to convert 232Th into 233U in the fast reactors. 233U will be the fuel in the futuristic third stage of nuclear program. Further, it is proposed to use thorium along with a small feed of plutonium-based fuel in Advanced Heavy Water Reactors (AHWRs) which are expected to facilitate large-scale thorium utilization.

BARC has active groups for Research and Development in Reactor Technologies, Fuel reprocessing and waste management, Isotope Applications, Radiation Technologies and their application to health, agriculture and environment, Accelerator and Laser Technology, Electronics, instrumentation and reactor control and Materials Science. Strong emphasis on basic and applied research in a number of core disciplines of Science has made synergy between basic research and technology development possible.