New Nuke reactors for indian nuclear submarine project under development

[$@rJen]

India’s first nuclear Ballistic submarine Arihant powered by a 83-mw Pressurized water reactors (PWRs) began Sea Trials on December 15th , compared that to 190-mw nuclear reactor of INS Chakra which is a Russian leased Akula class nuclear attack submarine certain section of Indian media went gaga over it and branded Arihant’s reactor has under powered with limited capability which will require frequent refueling and complex overhauls (RCOHs).

While good news is that India will be working on more powerful reactors which will be over 100 MW and will be used on later Arihant class sister ships and New SSN (attack submarine or hunter-killer submarine) which India plans to develop parallel to Nuclear Ballistic missile submarines program soon.

idrw.org was able to speak with Submariners and some defence expert who confirmed that 83-mw Pressurized water reactors (PWRs) used on Arihant might be under powered but adequate enough since not all nuclear submarines even if they have similar Displacement and are of similar size have different reactor power developed by their respected countries , citing example they said first generation Chinese Ballistic nuclear submarine introduced in 80’s had 50-mw reactors which gradually was increased to higher powered ones over the years .

Indian Express report complaint that Arihant will require frequent refueling and complex overhauls (RCOHs) which means Arihant hardly will be available for operational patrol even for one-fifth of its lifespan. Experts we spoke to explained that only few submarine reactor have longer effective core life of more than three decades particularly US made SSN and SSBN submarines due to advancement of reactor technology and many Western Nuclear submarines citing example of yet to be deployed French Barracuda-class submarine which will require major refueling and complex overhauls (RCOHs) every 10 years this explains that there is no particular standard for core reactor overhaul or refuelling in nuclear submarines operated by very few countries.

Arihant reactor might not be technologically advanced compared to US-made nuclear reactors used in their submarines, but is comparable to others. Complex nature of operating a Nuclear submarines makes them expensive and technologically challenging which requires skilled manpower and Shipyard infrastructure for overhauls over the operational lifespan of submarines which Indian Navy is very well aware of.

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New Nuke reactors for Indian Nuclear submarine Projects under development ? | idrw.org

 

[PARIKRAMA]

RCOH is all a hoax... we already know that news about Arihant is so secretive tht confirmation of anything is not possible. the first proto had 83 MW reactor on land but no one knows what in real arihant is carrying..

I take this news in other way..Since now the news is Arihant requires more powerful reactor and India is working on it it implies _ ARIHANT HAS 100 MW+ REACTOR ONBOARD... its just a way of leaking the news without casuing too much alarm

 

[amardeep mishra]

@Oscar
Hi oscar,
A lot has been written about the geo-political aspect of advent of nuclear submarine in indian ocean particularly the induction of INS ARIHANT, however unlike a lot of DRDO's research projects,,availability of the research literature on indian designed 85MW PWR is non existent(apart from the statements of a few admirals who have headed the development program).
Here i would like to bring the reactor under perpective-
It has been claimed by very very credible sources that the indian PWR has enrichment levels of close to 40%(equivalent of russian 3rd gen nuclear reactor enrichment levels circa late 80s)
source Nuclear-Powered Ships | Nuclear Submarines

Modern western particularly american nuclear vessels operate at enrichment levels of over 90% resulting in refueling interval of more than 20 years(some un-official reports even claim that the enrichment level of latest gerald ford is close to 93%).Going by the same proportions,indian reactor would require refuelling in 6-8years~ while this may not sound very advanced from american perspective,it indeed is pretty close to modern chinese reactor designs (their first attempt i.e the xia class had a PWR of just 50MW at lesser than 20% enrichment)
And as this latest piece of article suggests,a bigger light water reactor is under development more on the lines of 150-190MW.
But in my personal opinion,a reactor with higher enrichment levels is far more important and perhaps relevant from operational point of view than a bigger reactor(size of the vessel being constant) that requires frequent refuellings(and french nuclear subs bear a testimony to this- their power output is not as great as their american counterparts~ probably because their SSNs are pretty small,yet their enrichment levels are comparable)

 

[SQ8]

But in my personal opinion,a reactor with higher enrichment levels is far more important and perhaps relevant from operational point of view than a bigger reactor(size of the vessel being constant) that requires frequent refuellings(and french nuclear subs bear a testimony to this- their power output is not as great as their american counterparts~ probably because their SSNs are pretty small,yet their enrichment levels are comparable)

Depends on the tradeoff on power vs endurance.

 

[amardeep mishra]

Depends on the tradeoff on power vs endurance

you are correct,but then again it puts a restriction on the times a vessel is available for deterrent patrols~ for instance it has been claimed that the first gen of chinese subs i.e their Xia class(that had enrichment level ~15-18%) never actually left the chinese littoral sea(i am raising this point up to show the importance of enrichment levels on operational availability of nuclear vessels).It is only the type-094 that regularly sails out for deterrent patrols

 

[SQ8]

you are correct,but then again it puts a restriction on the times a vessel is available for deterrent patrols~ for instance it has been claimed that the first gen of chinese subs i.e their Xia class(that had enrichment level ~15-18%) never actually left the chinese littoral sea(i am raising this point up to show the importance of enrichment levels on operational availability of nuclear vessels).It is only the type-094 that regularly sails out for deterrent patrols

The Xia class where never really "blue water" boats. It was just a case of "we have them" with them. Remember that these boats were made when China found itself isolated from the USSR and the US.

 

[amardeep mishra]

Ankit majumdar?is it you?

 

[chairborne ranger]

Hell yeah

Ankit majumdar?is it you?

 

[amardeep mishra]

Hell yeah

Tere lehze se hi main pehchaan gaya ki ho na ho,ankit majumdar hi hoega!.
i am a bit busy hence de-activated my account,i will be back in a couple of months

 

[MehrotraPrince]

RCOH is all a hoax... we already know that news about Arihant is so secretive tht confirmation of anything is not possible. the first proto had 83 MW reactor on land but no one knows what in real arihant is carrying..

I take this news in other way..Since now the news is Arihant requires more powerful reactor and India is working on it it implies _ ARIHANT HAS 100 MW+ REACTOR ONBOARD... its just a way of leaking the news without casuing too much alarm

If we go by information available to public through open source then its hard to miss one important point.....
The Nuclear submarine recently in news which is called INS Arihant is designated as S2 and not S1, which means S1 was just prototype vehicle and was used for research purpose for various critical technologies, which includes propulsion, depth test, missile firing etc. ........I doubt about this 83 MW figure in Arihant(S2).