Kalpakkam FBR to be commissioned in March 2015

[RPK]

Kalpakkam FBR to be commissioned in March 2015 - The Hindu

ON COURSE: The 500 MWe of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) located within the 40-metre tall Reactor Containment Building at Kalpakkam.


The 500-MWe PFBR will mark a ‘Hanuman jump’ from currently operational FBTR
Things are on course for the commissioning of the 500-MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) before the end of this financial year (March 2015) at Kalpakkam. The loading of 1,750 tonnes of liquid sodium into seven loops in the reactor will commence in two weeks from now. Dummy fuel has already been loaded into the reactor. While plutonium-uranium mixed oxide is the reactor’s fuel, liquid sodium is the coolant. The PFBR’s generation of 500 MWe will mark a “Hanuman jump”, as French nuclear scientist George Vendryes put it, from the 13-MWe Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) currently operational at Kalpakkam.

“The PFBR team is determined to move ahead in compliance with all the requirements specified by the regulatory authorities. We have to ensure that the PFBR operates smoothly and successfully. We have to ensure that this breeder technology is safe, robust and cheap,” declared Prabhat Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI).

BHAVINI, a public sector undertaking of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), has been mandated to build a series of breeder reactors to provide energy independence to the country. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, designed and developed the technology for the PFBR. They are called breeder reactors because they breed more fuel than they consume.

Announcing that all electrical systems in the PFBR were operational, Mr. Kumar said: “The PFBR should be commissioned safely without sodium leaking from the system. We have to transfer 1,750 tonnes of sodium from ten tanks to the seven loops. We have completed most of the piping and instrumentation. We have energised most of the equipment. Instruments and sensors are connected to the Control Room. Results of the tests done so far are encouraging. Most of the support systems are fully commissioned and operating satisfactorily. They include raw water system, service water system, air mask system, nitrogen system, argon system etc. All the electrical systems including the switch-yard and battery banks are operational.”

This reactor is different from the fleet of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRS) already operating in India. Fabrication of gigantic PFBR components involved highly complex technology.

 

[DrSomnath999]

Excellent achievement for India ,I would say after india's mars mission ,this achievement would be recognised as the 2nd most wonderful
indigeneous achievement for India

CHEERS

 

[Bhasad Singh Mundi]

Indian fast breeder reactor set for 2014 switch on

India's first commercial fast breeder reactor is almost complete and will be ready in 2014, the head of India's nuclear programme has told a meeting of top level nuclear ministers.

Speaking at The International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in St Petersburg, Russia, last week, Ratan K. Sinha, chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission said: “Our first commercial fast breeder reactor is at an advanced stage of construction at Kalpakkam. All the major equipment has been erected and the loading of dummy fuel bundles at peripheral locations is in progress. Indigenously developed mixed oxide type fuel pins for the first core are under manufacture and progressive delivery.”

India's Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) will have a capacity of 500MWe be one of only three commercial-sized sodium-cooled fast operational reactors in the world when complete. The Russian BN-800, which is also sodium-cooled, is reported to be scheduled for commissioning at the end of 2014. The BN-800's predecessor, the BN-600 at Beloyarsk, has a capacity of 600MW.

Fast breeder reactors are able to produce more fissile material than they consume by “breeding” more fuel from normally non-fissionable isotopes. Experimental reactors have been developed since the 1960s around the world, but, after deposits of uranium were found to be larger than anticipated, only Russia developed the design further. Interest in fast breeder reactors has increased recently because of their capacity to burn high level nuclear waste and diminishing stocks of uranium.

India is developing fast breeder reactors because it has the world's second largest reserves of thorium, which can be used as a nuclear fuel in conjunction with fissile material in fast reactors. Although, the first iteration of India's fast breeder reactors will use MOX fuel, the Indian Government plans to use the surplus plutonium and uranium-233 to set up subsequent reactors. This will enable the eventual development of reactors that use thorium and the usage of India's large thorium reserves.

However, fast reactors are not without challenges and experts remain divided about their safety. The quicker movement of neutrons in fast reactors means unpredicted changes happen faster than in conventional thermal reactors, runaway reactions are more likely to happen and coolants such as liquid sodium are difficult to handle.

Construction of the PFBR at Kalpakkam started in 2004 and commissioning was originally scheduled for 2010. According to Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam, the company producing the fast breeder reactor, 95% of the plant had so far been constructed and commissioning is set for September 2014.

 

[Gessler]

With developments like these and the ambitious Thorium nuclear program, India shall definitely be one of the world leaders in nuclear technology by 2020.

 

[HariPrasad]

FBRs are very highly efficient reactor with very high burning ratio. It doesn't require a very highly purified fuel. It uses high energy neutrons for combustion.

 

[Bhasad Singh Mundi]

FBRs are very highly efficient reactor with very high burning ratio. It doesn't require a very highly purified fuel. It uses high energy neutrons for combustion.

And it produces more fuel than what it burns.

 

[HariPrasad]

And it produces more fuel than what it burns.

Yes

 

[Tangent]

...Important is it's installation for commercial power production..
..that's where the challange is..
Medha patkar, Arunditi roy, arvind kejriwal...and may other devil lurks there..