Indian Nuclear Programme and Its Importance

India’s long-term energy needs can be fulfilled by nuclear energy advancement and for this India took a big step forward in this by launching a three-stage nuclear program to fulfill the energy need in the future. This article is going to discuss India’s three-stage nuclear program in detail. Aspirants should go through the article and try to make note of it so that they will be able to attempt questions from this section

Nuclear Programme of India:

• India’s three-phase nuclear power plan, drawn up by “Homi Jehangir Bhabha” in the 1950s, tapped the uranium and thorium reserves in the monazite sands of the coastal regions of southern India to ensure the country’s long-term energy independence. 
  
• The ultimate focus of the program is to harness India’s thorium reserves to meet the country’s energy needs.
  
• Thorium is particularly attractive to India, which has only about 1-2% of the world’s uranium reserves, but it is one of the largest parts of the world’s thorium reserves. 
  
• However, Thorium is not currently economical because the world uranium price is much lower.
  
• With the recent India-US nuclear deal and the abandonment of the NSG, which ended the more than 30-year international isolation of India’s civilian nuclear program, there are many hitherto unexplored obstacles to the success of a three-phase nuclear energy program.
  
• Thorium itself is not a fissile material, so it cannot be fissioned to produce energy. Instead, it must be converted to Uranium-233 in nuclear reactors fueled by other fissile materials [Plutonium-239 or Uranium-235].
  
• The first two stages, a natural Uranium-fueled heavy water reactor, and a Plutonium-fueled fast breeder reactor will produce sufficient fissile material from India’s limited Uranium resources, and all of its vast Thorium reserves will power the heat of the third stage.

Three Stage Nuclear Programme of India:

(Stage I) – Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor [PHWR]

• In the first phase of the program, a natural Uranium-fueled heavy water reactor (PHWR) will generate electricity while producing Plutonium-239 as a by-product [U-238 → Plutonium-239 + Heat]
  
• PWHR does not require uranium enrichment to improve U-235 concentrations. U-238 can be inserted directly into the core.
  
• Natural Uranium consists of only 00.7% of the fissile isotope uranium-235. The remaining 99.3% is primarily Uranium-238, which is not fissile but can be converted to the fissile isotope Plutonium-239 in the reactor.
  
• Heavy water (deuterium oxide, D2O) is used as a moderator and coolant in PHWR. The PHWR had the most efficient reactor design in terms of Uranium utilization (no Uranium enrichment required), so it was the obvious choice for Phase 1 implementation.
  
• India correctly calculated that it would be easier to build a heavy water production plant (required for PHWR) than a Uranium enrichment plant (required for LWR).
  
• Except for two boiling water reactors (BWRs), almost all of the existing Indian nuclear power plants (4780 MW) consist of his PHWRs in the first stage.

(Stage II) – Fast Breeder Reactor

• The second phase will use a Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) [no moderator required] plutonium-239 and natural Uranium obtained by reprocessing the spent fuel of the first phase.
  
• In FBR, plutonium-239 fission to produce energy, and uranium-238 contained in the fuel is converted into additional plutonium-239.
  
•  Uranium-235 and plutonium-239 can cause a chain reaction. But U-238 cannot maintain a chain reaction. It will be converted to plutonium 239.
  

 Here we use of U-238 instead of U-235, Why?

Because natural uranium consists of only 00.7% of the fissile uranium 235 and the remaining 99.3% are uranium-238. Therefore, Stage II FBRs are designed to “breed” more fuel than they use.

• Once stocks of Plutonium-239 are built up, Thorium can be introduced into the reactor as cover material and converted to Uranium-233 for use in the third stage.
  
• The surplus Plutonium produced in each fast reactor can be used to build more such reactors, until India’s third stage reactor, which uses Thorium as fuel, can be operated.  Civil nuclear power capacity can be increased.
  
• As of August 2014, India’s prototype fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam.

(Stage III) – Thorium-based reactors

• A Stage III reactor or advanced nuclear power system consists of a series of self-sustaining nuclear reactors fueled by thorium-232 and uranium-233.
  
• It is a thermal breeder and, in principle, can only be fueled by naturally occurring thorium after the first fuel charge.
  
• According to his responses to questions and answers before the Indian Parliament on two separate occasions, 19 August 2010 and 21 March 2012, the large-scale deployment of thorium is expected to continue until the rapid commercial operation of FBRs in 30 to 40 years. i.e 2040-2070
  
• Due to the long delays before the direct use of thorium in the 3-phase program, the country is now considering a reactor design that would allow for the more direct use of thorium in parallel with his sequential 3-phase program. I’m here. 
  
• Three options under consideration are Accelerator Driven System (ADS), Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR), and Small High-Temperature Reactor.

(Kalpakkam Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor)

• The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is a 500 MWe fast breeder reactor currently under construction at the Madras Nuclear Power Station in Kalpakkam, India.
  
• The design of this reactor is the responsibility of the Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research (IGCAR).
  
• As of 2007, this reactor was due to come online in 2010, but now from March 2016, it is expected to reach its first criticality in April.
  
• Construction is complete and the owner/operator, Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI), is awaiting approval from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).
  
• The total cost was initially estimated at Rs 350 crore, but now it is estimated at Rs 5677 crore. The Kalpakkam PFBR uses Uranium-238 rather than Thorium to grow new fissile material in a sodium-cooled fast reactor design.
  
• Excess Plutonium or Uranium-233 [U-238 is converted to Plutonium] for Thorium reactors from each fast reactor will be used to build more such reactors to meet India’s energy needs.  You can increase the capacity.
  
• The fact that PFBRs are cooled by liquid sodium creates an additional safety requirement to isolate the coolant from the environment, as sodium explodes in contact with water and burns in contact with air.