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Monazite powder, a rare earth and thorium phosphate mineral, is the primary source of the world's thorium. India's three-stage nuclear power programme was formulated by Homi Bhabha, the well-known physicist, in the 1950s to secure the country's long term energy independence, through the use of uranium and thorium reserves found in the monazite sands of coastal regions of South India.
India has the capability to use thorium cycle based processes to extract nuclear fuel. This is of special significance to the Indian nuclear power generation strategy as India has one of the world's largest reserves of thorium, which could provide power for perhaps as long as 60,000 years. [13] [14]
A sample of thorium. Thorium-based nuclear power generation is fueled primarily by the nuclear fission of the isotope uranium-233 produced from the fertile element thorium.A thorium fuel cycle can offer several potential advantages over a uranium fuel cycle [Note 1] —including the much greater abundance of thorium found on Earth, superior physical and nuclear fuel properties, and reduced ...
Thorium resources are the estimated mineral reserves of thorium on Earth. Thorium is a future potential source of low-carbon energy. [1] Thorium has been demonstrated to perform as a nuclear fuel in several reactor designs. [2] [3] It is present with a higher abundance than uranium in the crust of the earth. Thorium resources have not been ...
India has to go for nuclear power generation in a big way using thorium-based reactors. Thorium, a non-fissile material is available in abundance in our country." [108] India has vast thorium reserves and quite limited uranium reserves. [109] [110] The long-term goal of India's nuclear program has been to develop an advanced heavy-water thorium ...
It is being developed at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), in Mumbai, India and aims to meet the objectives of using thorium fuel cycles for commercial power generation. The AHWR is a vertical pressure tube type reactor cooled by boiling light water under natural circulation.
In 1993, the reactor's power level was raised to 10.5 MW. In September 2002, fuel burn-up in the FBTR for the first time reached the 100,000 megawatt-days per metric ton uranium (MWd/MTU) mark. [citation needed] This is considered an important milestone in breeder reactor technology. On 7 March 2022 it attained the design power level of 40 MWt. [2]
BARC is developing a 300 MWe advanced heavy-water reactor design that is powered by thorium-232 and uranium-233 to power the third stage of India's three-stage nuclear power programme. The AHWR at standard is set to be a closed nuclear fuel cycle.