India’s Atomic Energy Commission Chairman, Dr. Anil Kakodkar, announced during his speech at IAEA’s 53rd General Conference that India had designed an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor-Low Enriched Uranium (AHWR-LEU) that uses thorium along with low enriched uranium as fuel. He said that “the reactor has a significantly lower requirement of mined uranium per unit energy produced as compared to most of the current generation thermal reactors. This version of the design also can meet the requirement of medium sized reactors, in countries with small grids while meeting the requirements of next generation systems.”
The new version of the AHWR is part of the third stage of India’s nuclear programme as laid out by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). The DAE plans to focus its efforts on utilizing the 2,25,000 tonnes of thorium metal available for a nuclear program for power generation to meet India’s growing energy requirements. The plan mentions that a design objective of the new AHWR is to be “self-sustaining in 233U with most of the power from the conversion of thorium fuel while using plutonium as the external fissile feed.” The AHWR-LEU is also said to meet all safety criteria for an advanced nuclear generating system. A detailed diagram and design features of the AHWR-LEU can be found at the DAE website.
Another aspect of the thorium cycle as used in this case is that it is better resistant to proliferation. The non-proliferation benefit of the new AHWR is explained by the DAE as follows. ” A part of the fresh fuel for AHWR, bearing uranium-233, will (require to) be produced remotely behind lead shields. This requirement follows from the presence of uranium-232, as an impurity along with uranium-233. (As mentioned earlier), the former, through its radioactive decay, produces some nuclides with high gamma radioactivity. Many experts in the world view this characteristics as an important feature, which makes thorium cycle resistant to proliferation.”
This non-proliferation feature becomes important in view of the proliferation concerns raised regarding India’s civilian nuclear deals with the United States and other countries. It is argued that the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal will encourage other countries to demand nuclear deals and consequently increase the chances of nuclear proliferation in the region. India has signed five more nuclear deals since the Nuclear Supplier Group’s waiver last Fall.
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