India's innovative nuclear power reactor
"As a result of its fuel mix and fuel breeding properties, the 300 MWe plant requires 42 per cent less mined uranium per unit of energy produced than a modern high burn up PWR", the reactor's designers said.
People waiting for a nuclear renaissance expect that the new reactors on the drawing board should assure a very high level of safety and security; they must have the ability to perform with a lower level of technological infrastructure prevailing in several developing countries; they must have high fuel use efficiency and superior waste disposal options.
The development of the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, AHWR300-LEU, is an effort to realize these futuristic objectives through innovative configuration of present day technologies, Anil Kakodkar and Ratan Sinha, the designers of India's innovative nuclear reactor wrote in the May 2010 issue of Nuclear Engineering International.
They called the reactor India's passive breeder.
As a result of its fuel mix and fuel breeding properties, the 300 MWe plant requires 42 per cent less mined uranium per unit of energy produced than a modern high burn up PWR, they added.
AHWR300-LEU with an estimated design life of 100 years is a vertical, pressure tube type, boiling light water-cooled, heavy water- moderated reactor with reduced environmental impact. It has many features which are likely to reduce both its capital and operating costs.
The designers have eliminated primary coolant pumps and drive motors and related control and power supply equipment, thereby saving the electric power to run them. This helps to reduce cost and to enhance reliability.
The use of heavy water at low pressure reduces the potential for leakages. The heat generated in the moderator will be recovered and used for heating the feed-water.
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