India Designs Next Generation Reactors

[Lilo]

India Designs Next Generation Reactors
India has started designing its next generation fast breeder reactors (FBRs), scientists said here Friday.

These FBRs will also have the capability of using metallic fuels, they said.

"By 2020, India will emerge as the leader in fast breeder technology," said Baldev Raj, director Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR).

Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd's first indigenous FBR in its Kalpakkam site is scheduled to go critical by September 2010.

"Work on this is progressing rapidly and the safety vessel for the reactor and the sodium tank will be in place in about a month's time," the IGCAR director told the media here.

This first reactor, with a capability for 500 MW, will be using mixed oxide as fuel - which is oxides of plutonium and uranium.

This project may get completed before 2010, but the IGCAR director was cautious and said, "We don't want costs to go up and we want the high capacity of production to sustain. We therefore don't want to hurry about going critical."

India has begun designing four other FBRs, two of which will come up at the Department of Atomic Energy's (DAE's) Kalpakkam campus. The locations of the other two have not yet been decided.

These four new breeder reactors "will use mixed oxides but will have the capability to switch to metallic fuels, and research in this area has already begun", said Raj.

Russia, Japan, Germany Sweden and USA are also studying liquid metal fuels for small reactors, especially lead, sodium and bismuth technologies. Liquid metal fuels are said to be safer and long storing.

"By 2020 we want to be able to generate 2,500 MW and for that the designs for the four additional FBRs have to be ready by 2009," said Raj.

The IGCAR director was speaking to the media on the sidelights of the collaborative meeting of technical delegations from India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) on science and technology.

© 2007 Ians.in

http://www.playfuls.com/news_006264_India_Designs_Next_Generation_Reactors.html

I wonder if these FBRs work on Thorium yet..??

 

[Contrarian]

Good News!

P.S: They dont.

 

[Neo]

I wonder if these FBRs work on Thorium yet..??

I believe thorium based reactors are still being studied and the technology to utlise thorium as fuel is still in its early stages of development. It won't be used for another decade or two.
Malay correct me if I'm mis informed or ask Joey to get here.

 

[Contrarian]

No, you are correct. The Thorium based reactors are still in their early stages as they are not viable enough. The technology avaiable does not allow their widespread use as it is with Uranium reactors.

You are indeed right, it wont be in use for another decade or two. This is the PRECISE reason why India has been studying FBR's for a very long while now. India has ridiculously low amounts of Uranium.

*Infact there are independent estimates that Indian Uranium reserves will be finished with 10000MW's of energy* (I dont remember the exact figure, but it was very low, i think though it was 10,000. Let me research this.)

Thus this was one of the MAIN reasons why India was after the nuke deal. To assure us of uranium for future use. What good are reactors when there is no fuel to power them.
That is why FBR's are critical for India, and there progress has been VERY well.

In the future, India would have no need for NSG for fuel. India has 1/3rd of the worlds Thorium reserves. The technology limits its use now, but after a couple of decades, it would be much more widespread. It is also suppsedly cleaner and better than Uranium.

 

[Neo]

Report: India to Build $11B Power Plant
Friday April 6, 2007
Report: India to Build Large Atomic Power Plant in Western State of Maharashtra for $11B

NEW DELHI (AP) -- India plans to build a large atomic power plant in the western state of Maharashtra, encouraged by the civilian nuclear deal with the U.S. that will help the country access the international market for nuclear fuel and technologies, a news report said.

State-run Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd. plans to build the 10,000 megawatt plant using European pressurized reactors, or EPRs, from France, Germany and Finland, the Financial Express newspaper reported.

EPRs are third generation nuclear reactors that feature better safety standards and significantly contain radioactivity in the event of an accident.

The plant, comprising six units, each having the capacity to generate 1,650 megawatts of electricity, will cost 500 billion rupees ($11.4 billion), the report said quoting S.K. Jain, chairman of the Indian company.

The investment amount will be raised through a combination of equity and debt, including loans from multilateral development agencies, the report quoted Jain as saying.

India currently operates much smaller plants with a combined capacity of less than 4,000 megawatts, mainly because of lack of adequate nuclear fuel supplies.

Construction of the plant is expected to start next year, Jain said.

It wasn't immediately clear if companies from European countries would also have equity stakes in the project. The report didn't elaborate on financial aspects.

Officials at Nuclear Power Corp. could not be reached for comments as government offices were closed to mark the Good Friday holiday.

The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group bars its members from exporting nuclear fuel to India because New Delhi has refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The agreement with the United States, which was cleared by its Congress last December, seeks to lift that ban.

Encouraged by the deal, India plans to increase nuclear power production nearly 10-fold to 30,000 megawatts in 20 years. That target could go up if India allows domestic private companies to enter nuclear power generation, which is currently limited to state-run utilities.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070406/india_nuclear_power.html?.v=1

 

[Adux]

Road map drawn up to make prototype reactor `safe, economical'

Special Correspondent

Four more fast breeder reactors will be built by 2020: Baldev Raj





KALPAKKAM : A detailed road map has been drawn up by the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, to make India's first 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), under construction at Kalpakkam, more safe and economical.

The IGCAR has developed the complex technology for the PFBR and the Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI) is constructing it. The reactor's fuel will be plutonium-uranium oxide, Baldev Raj, Director of IGCAR, told presspersons at Kalpakkam on Friday.

In an informal talk with presspersons after holding discussions with delegates from Brazil and South Africa as part of IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) Nano-technology initiative, he said IGCAR was committed to the deadline of September 2010 for the PFBR to become operational. "We have drawn a clear road map for making the indigenous PFBR more economical and safe. Though we are confident of completing it ahead of schedule, we don't want to rush things. We are committed to the date given to the Union Planning Commission. Since this is the first of its kind reactor, we do not want to exceed the cost and time factor," he said. "We want the reactor to work at a good capacity factor for a sustained period".

Construction of the reactor was on in full swing. Most of the components, indigenously manufactured to specifications, have already arrived at the site and erection is under way. The safety vessel would be lowered into the reactor building in a month's time.

IGCAR, Dr. Raj said, had started designing four more FBRs to be built by 2020. The designs would be ready by the end of 2009.

Two more FBRs would come up at Kalpakkam and the sites for the other two reactors were yet to be decided. "Once completed, the five reactors (including the PFBR) put together will generate 2,500 MWe of power from 2020," he said.

Unique feature


The unique feature of the four new FBRs was that they would use mixed oxide fuel with the possibility of switching over to metallic fuel. "We can change the core from oxide to metallic fuel," he said.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/07/stories/2007040705910400.htm .

 

[Lilo]

India To Double Uranium Production In 2007

Indian scientists Monday said that in 2007 uranium production in the country would double.

According to the officials of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), only four imported reactors - two at Tarapore in Maharashtra and two in Rajasthan - are actually under inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"As for the other reactors, there is a proposal to classify them as civilian, but until an agreement takes place we are continuing as usual," Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) director S. Banerjee said here Monday.

Asked to clarify, he said: "We in India have never looked at reactors as military or civilian. We are not going to do any classification until there is a specific agreement and will continue operating them as we have been doing" for the last two decades.

The country is preparing to set up 12 new reactors for nuclear power in the next two years, so that by 2012 India could get at least 10,000 MW.

Banerjee, along with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) chairman S.K. Jain, was speaking to the media here on the sidelines of an international steel conference.

India's own mines at Jaduguda (Jharkhand) have 1,000 MTPD (metric tonne per day) processing capacity and India owns only 0.8 percent of the world's uranium reserve.

"The plan is to step up power production by next year, starting with eight 700-MW PHWR (pressurised heavy water reactors) rea," said S.K. Jain, chairman and MD, NPCIL and BHAVINI (Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd).

India is also looking at setting up one light water reactor and three fast breeder reactors, he said.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India is operating 14 (two boiling water reactors and 12 PHWRs) reactors, with a total capacity of 2,720 MWe and the eight reactors it is building will up its power production by another 5,600 MWe (totalling more than 8,000 MWe).

It also has two test reactors and the first indigenous fast breeder reactor is expected to start production by next year.

"The sites for four PHWRs has already been found, we are now looking among our basket of sites to find the most suitable, for the other four," Jain said. The first four are to be at Rajasthan and at Kakrapara (Gujarat).

Of the three fast breeder reactors, two 500 MW ones will be at DAE's Kalpakkam campus.

Designing for one advanced heavy water reactor (AHWR) too has begun, Jain said. This will be a thorium reactor of about 300 MWe. The safety appraisal for this is over, officials said.

"We do not want to begin setting up all the reactors at the same time. Our uranium production will double next year and we want to link the reactors to uranium availability," Jain said.

Therefore, NPCIL is going to set up the reactors in a phased manner over the next two years, the first four new PHWRs and then the next ones after 10 months or so.

He said that NPCIL has been constructing its power plants on a commercial basis "without any foreign investment" so far.

India is planning its reactors to work for at least 60 to a hundred years, officials here said.

"The prototype fast breeder reactor has a life time of 40 years, the FBRs have 60 year life, we want to ensure that they give us power for the next 100 years," BARC director S. Banerjee said.

He said India is looking for deep-seated uranium reserves now.

© 2007 Ians.in

http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_23421-India-To-Double-Uranium-Production-In-2007.html

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