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India's first indigenously developed 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) commissioned

500 MW Kalpakkam Reactor to Reach Criticality
India’s PFBR, is the World's first plutonium-based fast breeder reactor
By C Shivakumar | ENS
Published: 28th June 2014 07:27 AM
Kalpakkam_plant_EPS.JPG

Outside view of Kalpakkam Atomic Power reactor - Express Photo

CHENNAI: The integrated commissioning of the indigenously developed 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam, which uses liquid sodium to cool the reactor, has commenced and the reactor will attain criticality in the next two to three months, Prabhat Kumar, chairman and managing director of Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI), has said.

Disclosing this to Express, he said the sodium is now being heated below 95 degrees Celsius before being transferred from the tank. “The integrated commissioning of the reactor has started on Wednesday and we are trying to attain criticality in the next few months.”

Significantly, the closed fuel cycle option has been chosen for the PFBR, under which the spent fuel discharged from the reactor is reprocessed and converted into indigenously developed unique plutonium-rich mixed carbide fuel.

According to scientists, fast breeder reactors would make effective utilisation of the depleting uranium resource in the country, and use plutonium as a fuel with significant reduction in radioactive waste.

Construction has resumed to develop the Fast Reactor Fuel Cycle Facility for recycling the fuel from PFBR, including fuel fabrication and assembly, reprocessing and waste management.

The FRFCF got the nod from Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board in February and construction of the facility is underway at a fast pace, says P R Vasudeva Rao, director of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam.

Maintaining that the country has several nuclear reprocessing plants which supply fuel for thermal plants, he says this, however, would be the only facility that would reprocess fuel for fast breeder reactors on a large scale. According to Rao, initially tests were carried out on a pilot plant called CORAL (Compact Reprocessing of Advanced fuels in Lead shielded cells), formerly known as the Lead Mini Cell (LMC). “We learnt reprocessing of fuel catering to PFBR in the last 10 to 15 years,” he revealed. PFBR is also an important milestone for India’s three-stage nuclear power programme. The country has chosen the closed fuel cycle option in view of its phased expansion of nuclear power generation extending through the second and third stages, whereby full energy potential of uranium and thorium could be utilised.

Source:- 500 MW Kalpakkam Reactor to Reach Criticality -The New Indian Express

India’s PFBR, is the World's first plutonium-based fast breeder reactor

It is not.


https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&r...S834JY&usg=AFQjCNGjU728B0XpxEmr7XEiZijMsMiJTQ
 
Dead Wrong.
China has far more ambitious plans than India with a far more superior reactor.
China blazes trail for 'clean' nuclear power from thorium - Telegraph

Having ambitious plans doesn't mean that one is at the top of the world! Even the North Koreans have such ambitions whose reality is well known! India is the world leader in Thorium research - It has the highest number of publications in this domain only followed by united states!

Our leadership in Thorium research is well appreciated by world - "This would be the best in the world facility to obtain benchmark data for Thorium based reactors " - Mr Harold Mcfarlen Former president American Nuclear association .

Earlier, India produced the world's first thorium nuclear reactor, the Kakrapar-1, in 1993.
India to build more thorium nuclear reactors | Asian Power
Kakrapar Atomic Power Station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


>> China's two major enrichment plants were built under agreements with Russia in the 1990's and, under a 2008 agreement, Russia is helping to build additional capacity and also supply low-enriched uranium to meet future needs.
China's Nuclear Fuel Cycle

>>" In early 2012, it was reported that China, using components produced by the West and Russia, planned to build two prototype thorium molten salt reactors by 2015, and had budgeted the project at $400 million and requiring 400 workers"

Martin, Richard. Superfuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future. Palgrave – Macmillan (2012)

CANDU Energy Inc. | Candu Signs Expanded Agreement with China to Further Develop Recycled Uranium and Thorium Fuelled CANDU Reactors

>> This project mentioned in the article you linked was formally announced by the CAS in its annual conference in January 2011.

>> Their plan was to build a tiny 2 MW plant using liquid fluoride fuel by the end of the decade, before scaling up to commercially viable size over the 2020s. They are also working on a pebble-bed reactor.

>> The proposed completion date for a test 2 MW pebble-bed solid thorium and molten salt cooled reactor has been delayed from 2015 to 2017.

>> The proposed "test thorium molten-salt reactor" has also been delayed.
Completion date slips for China’s thorium molten salt reactor - The Alvin Weinberg Foundation

>>India is building a 300 MW prototype thorium based reactor and you are building a 2 MW pebble bed thorium molten-salt reactor at the same time, the projects are different the approach is different - no comparison fits here!

Go through this and you will gt to know yourself - Nuclear Power in India | Indian Nuclear Energy


Sorry my bad! I didn't researched the topic well but still its the only plutonium-based fast breeder reactor existing/active till date anywhere in the world and the second one in the world as well!

Nuclear power plant near Chennai all set for milestone event | Business Line
 
With pleasure.Once we started the commercial production of electricity by Thorium reactor we will sell that to our neighbours.
Like our Prime Minister .Our technological advancement is for all humanity.Not only for elite but also for poor.

But not for those who behead Indian soldiers...
 
The foundations of our self-reliance in reactor technologies is increasing. Only thing now is that we need to fast track the thorium reactor tech due in September and also scout Africa and Eurasia for nuclear fuel. A long term strategic pact that guarantees us supplies of uranium from mines in Kazakhstan, Namibia, Russia and even other 'stans, should be the new target for NaMo and his ministers.

I read somewhere, 30% of energy consumption in India, will come from Thorium. Thorium is cheaper and non-radioactive.
 
Congratulations .Now we are waiting for Thorium based reactor.
badsha this is part of thorium reactor
India's throium reactor is 3 phase reactor, this is phase 3, phase 1 n 2 have already been tested
 
Fuel reserves and research capability
According to a report issued by the IAEA, India has limited uranium reserves, consisting of approximately 54,636 tonnes of “reasonably assured resources”, 25,245 tonnes of “estimated additional resources”, 15,488 tonnes of “undiscovered conventional resources, and 17,000 tonnes of “speculative resources”. According to NPCIL, these reserves are only sufficient to generate about 10 GWe for about 40 years.[23] In July 2011, it was reported that a four-year-long mining survey done at Tummalapalle mine in Kadapa district near Hyderabad had yielded confirmed reserve figure of 49,000 tonnes with a potential that it could rise to 150,000 tonnes.[24] This was a rise from an earlier estimate of 15,000 tonnes for that area.[25]

Although India has only around 1–2% of the global uranium reserves, thorium reserves are bigger; around 12–33% of global reserves, according to IAEA and US Geological Survey.[26][27][28][29] Several in-depth independent studies put Indian thorium reserves at 30% of the total world thorium reserves.[3][4][5][6]

As per official estimates shared in the country's Parliament in August 2011, the country can obtain 846,477 tonnes of thorium from 963,000 tonnes of ThO2, which in turn can be obtained from 10.7 million tonnes of monazite occurring in beaches and river sands in association with other heavy metals. Indian monazite contains about 9–10% ThO2.[2] The 846,477 tonne figure compares with the earlier estimates for India, made by IAEA and US Geological Survey of 319,000 tonnes and 290,000 to 650,000 tonnes respectively. The 800,000 tonne figure is given by other sources as well.[30]

It was further clarified in the country’s Parliament on 21 March 2012 that, “Out of nearly 100 deposits of the heavy minerals, at present only 17 deposits containing about 4 million tonnes of monazite have been identified as exploitable. Mineable reserves are ~70% of identified exploitable resources. Therefore, about 225,000 tonnes of thorium metal is available for nuclear power programme.”[31]

India is generally considered as the leader of thorium based research in the world.[32][10] It is also by far the most committed nation as far as the use of thorium fuel is concerned, and no other country has done as much neutron physics work on thorium.[33] The country published about twice the number of papers on thorium as its nearest competitors during each of the years from 2002 to 2006.[7] Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) had the highest number of publications in the thorium area, across all research institutions in the world during the period 1982-2004. During this same period, India ranks an overall second behind the United States in the research output on Thorium.[34] Analysis shows that majority of the authors involved in thorium research publications appear to be from India.[35] According to Siegfried Hecker, a former director (1986–1997) of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the U.S., "India has the most technically ambitious and innovative nuclear energy programme in the world. The extent and functionality of its nuclear experimental facilities are matched only by those in Russia and are far ahead of what is left in the US."[10]

Stage I – pressurised heavy water reactor
In the first stage of the programme, natural uranium fuelled pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) produce electricity while generating plutonium-239 as by-product. PHWRs was a natural choice for implementing the first stage because it had the most efficient reactor design in terms of uranium utilisation, and the existing Indian infrastructure in the 1960s allowed for quick adoption of the PHWR technology.[36] India correctly calculated that it would be easier to create heavy water production facilities (required for PHWRs) than uranium enrichment facilities (required for LWRs).[37] Natural uranium contains only 0.7% of the fissile isotope uranium-235. Most of the remaining 99.3% is uranium-238 which is not fissile but can be converted in a reactor to the fissile isotope plutonium-239. Heavy water (deuterium oxide, D 2O) is used as moderator and coolant.[38]

Indian uranium reserves are capable of generating a total power capacity of 420 GWe-years, but in order to ensure that existing plants get a lifetime supply of uranium, it becomes necessary to limit the number of PHWRs fueled exclusively by indigenous uranium reserves. US analysts calculate this limit as being slightly over 13 GW in capacity.[39] Several other sources estimate that the known reserves of natural uranium in the country permit only about 10 GW of capacity to be built through indigenously fueled PHWRs.[40][41][42][43] The three-stage programme explicitly incorporates this limit as the upper cut off of the first stage, beyond which PHWRs are not planned to be built.[44]

Almost the entire existing base of Indian nuclear power (4780 MW) is composed of first stage PHWRs, with the exception of the two Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) units at Tarapur.[45][46] The installed capacity of Kaiga station is now 880 MW, making it the third largest after Tarapur (1400 MW) and Rawatbhata (1180 MW).[46] The remaining three power stations at Kakrapar,[47] Kalpakkam[48] and Narora[49] all have 2 units of 220 MW, thus contributing 440 MW each to the grid. The 2 units of 700 MWe each (PHWRs) that are under construction at both Kakrapar[47][50] and Rawatbhata,[51] and the one planned for Banswara[52] would also come under the first stage of the programme, totalling a further addition of 4200 MW. These additions will bring the total power capacity from the first stage PHWRs to near the total planned capacity of 10 GW called for by the three-stage power programme.[44][45]

Capital costs of PHWRs is in the range of Rs. 6 to 7 crore ($1.2 to $1.4 million) per MW,[53] coupled with a designed plant life of 40 years. Time required for construction has improved over time and is now at about 5 years. Tariffs of the operating plants are in the range of Rs. 1.75 to 2.80 per unit, depending on the life of the reactor.[54] In the year 2007–08 the average tariff was Rs.2.28. The tariffs of new plants to be set up, both indigenous and imported, are expected to be about Rs. 2.50 in the year 2015 (at 2007 prices).[55]

Stage II – fast breeder reactor
In the second stage, fast breeder reactors (FBRs) would use a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel made from plutonium-239, recovered by reprocessing spent fuel from the first stage, and natural uranium. In FBRs, plutonium-239 undergoes fission to produce energy, while the uranium-238 present in the mixed oxide fuel transmutes to additional plutonium-239. Thus, the Stage II FBRs are designed to "breed" more fuel than they consume. Once the inventory of plutonium-239 is built up thorium can be introduced as a blanket material in the reactor and transmuted to uranium-233 for use in the third stage.[13]

The surplus plutonium bred in each fast reactor can be used to set up more such reactors, and thus grow the Indian civil nuclear power capacity till the point where the third stage reactors using thorium as fuel can be brought online, which is forecasted as being possible once 50 GW of nuclear power capacity has been achieved.[56][57][58] The uranium in the first stage PHWRs that yield 29 EJ of energy in the once-through fuel cycle, can be made to yield between 65 and 128 times more energy through multiple cycles in fast breeder reactors.[59]

The design of the country's first fast breeder, called Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), was done by Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR). Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd (Bhavini), a public sector company under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), has been given the responsibility to build the fast breeder reactors in India.[42][56] The construction of this PFBR at Kalpakkam was due to be completed in 2012.[60][61] It is not yet complete. A start date in 2015 has been suggested.[56]

In addition, the country proposes to undertake the construction of four FBRs as part of the 12th Five Year Plan spanning 2012–17, thus targeting 2500 MW from the five reactors.[62][63] One of these five reactors is planned to be operated with metallic fuel instead of oxide fuel, since the design will have the flexibility to accept metallic fuel, although the reference design is for oxide fuel.[64] Indian government has already allotted Rs.250 crore for pre-project activities for two more 500 MW units, although the location is yet to be finalised.[56]

Doubling time
Doubling time refers to the time required to extract as output, double the amount of fissile fuel, which was fed as input into the breeder reactors.[a] This metric is critical for understanding the time durations that are unavoidable while transitioning from the second stage to the third stage of Bhabha’s plan, because building up a sufficiently large fissile stock is essential to the large deployment of the third stage. In Bhabha's 1958 papers on role of thorium, he pictured a doubling time of 5–6 years for breeding U-233 in the Th–U233 cycle. This estimate has now been revised to 70 years due to technical difficulties that were unforeseen at the time. Despite such setbacks, according to publications done by DAE scientists, the doubling time of fissile material in the fast breeder reactors can be brought down to about 10 years by choosing appropriate technologies with short doubling time.[17]

Type U238–Pu cycle Th–U233 cycle
oxide 17.8 108
carbide-Lee 10 50
metal 8.5 75.1
carbide 10.2 70
Another report prepared for U.S. Department of Energy suggests a doubling time of 22 years for oxide fuel, 13 years for carbide fuel and 10 years for metal fuel.[65]

Stage III – thorium based reactors
See also: Thorium fuel cycle


A sample of thorium
A Stage III reactor or an Advanced nuclear power system involves a self-sustaining series of thorium-232-uranium-233 fuelled reactors. This would be a thermal breeder reactor, which in principle can be refueled – after its initial fuel charge – using only naturally occurring thorium. According to the three-stage programme, Indian nuclear energy could grow to about 10 GW through PHWRs fueled by domestic uranium, and the growth above that would have to come from FBRs till about 50GW.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India's_three-stage_nuclear_power_programme#cite_note-67 The third stage is to be deployed only after this capacity has been achieved.[57]

According to replies given in Q&A in the Indian Parliament on two separate occasions, 19 August 2010 and 21 March 2012, large scale thorium deployment is only to be expected “3 – 4 decades after the commercial operation of fast breeder reactors with short doubling time”.[66][31] Full exploitation of India’s domestic thorium reserves will likely not occur until after the year 2050.[67]

India's three-stage nuclear power programme - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
I read somewhere, 30% of energy consumption in India, will come from Thorium. Thorium is cheaper and non-radioactive.

India has a fourth of all the Thorium discovered on this planet, so it is wise to use it gainfully. Problem is, Thorium is useless as a fuel, until it is converted into Uranium-233, for which you need fast breeder reactors.

Then why didn’t India start building fast breeders right from the beginning? Because it is not possible.

The fast breeders need a lot of Uranium, or Plutonium. Uranium, India does not have much of, and no other country would give us after 1974, when Pokhran-I happened. Plutonium does not occur in nature, it has to be produced in a nuclear reactor.

So, the country had to wait for four decades to have sufficient stock of Plutonium to fire up the fast breeders. And now, it is happening.

Facts at a Glance>>>
>> One ton of Thorium can produce same energy as 200 tons of Uranium, or 3,500,000 tons of coal and India has the largest Thorium reserves in the world amounting to 846,000 tons.

>> Earlier, India produced the world's first thorium nuclear reactor, the Kakrapar-1, in 1993.

>> The construction on the first 300 MW prototype AHWR is scheduled to start in 2016 - though no site has yet been announced.

>> Later, the first megawatt of electricity would be be generated by 2025. To generate a single megawatt of electricity from this world's first thorium based reactor it would take at least 7-8 years.

>> This reactor could function without an operator for 120 days.

1907558_648325265228026_1375927101_n.jpg

Read more at - India designs World's first Thorium based Nuclear Reactor
 
Guys have you noticed this reactor is running under a tin shed ? Why didn't they build a proper structure to isolate the reactor if things go wrong ?


This is not a reactor dear. it is simply a tank.

ndia has the most technically ambitious and innovative nuclear energy programme in the world. The extent and functionality of its nuclear experimental facilities are matched only by those in Russia and are far ahead of what is left in the US.


Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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India has a fourth of all the Thorium discovered on this planet, so it is wise to use it gainfully.


You seem to know ur stuff, would u know how much of thorium has been stolen from us? any info it?? thx in advance
 
You seem to know ur stuff, would u know how much of thorium has been stolen from us? any info it?? thx in advance

The UPA government had failed to control the export of monazite, the raw material from which thorium can be extracted, and had allowed 2.1 million tonnes of it to be extracted! If the thorium extracted from the monazite is estimated at $100 per tonne, then the loss to the exchequer is approximately Rs 48 lakh crore, in addition to the incalculable loss to the nuclear fuel programme. This monazite sand was mined from particular beaches in states like Kerala, Orissa and Tamil Nadu which yields about 8 to 10 percent thorium. 2.1 million tones of monazite is equivalent to 195,300 tonnes of thorium at 9.3 per cent recovery - The importance of this element can clearly be understood by the fact that one ton of Thorium can produce same energy as 200 tons of Uranium, or 3,500,000 tons of coal and we just exported 195,300 tonnes of thorium! These thorium reserves estimates are recent ones EXCLUDING those reserves which have been illegally exported -

1907558_648325265228026_1375927101_n.jpg
 
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The UPA government had failed to control the export of monazite, the raw material from which thorium can be extracted, and had allowed 2.1 million tonnes of it to be extracted! If the thorium extracted from the monazite is estimated at $100 per tonne, then the loss to the exchequer is approximately Rs 48 lakh crore, in addition to the incalculable loss to the nuclear fuel programme. This monazite sand was mined from particular beaches in states like Kerala, Orissa and Tamil Nadu which yields about 8 to 10 percent thorium. 2.1 million tones of monazite is equivalent to 195,300 tonnes of thorium at 9.3 per cent recovery - The importance of this element can clearly be understood by the fact that one ton of Thorium can produce same energy as 200 tons of Uranium, or 3,500,000 tons of coal and we just exported 195,300 tonnes of thorium! These thorium reserves estimates are recent ones EXCLUDING those reserves which have been illegally exported -

1907558_648325265228026_1375927101_n.jpg

Indian thorium sand scam is woth 60 lakh crore
What happened to the Rs 60 lakh crore thorium scam? | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis
 
Man o man...

Read your own article before refuting the claim of posters....
You are certainly dead wrong....

Where I am wrong? I know its not generating power as of now but it was first PBFBR.
 
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