Prototype fast breeder reactor to be launched at Kalpakkam soon
India's First 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), being built at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam, about 70 km from here, would be commissioned soon, signalling India's entry into the next stage of its N-power programme.
By : migrator
Update: 2017-12-07 20:37 GMT
Chennai
The Heavy water Reactor would start commercial power generation from the end of next year, IGCAR Director Arun Kumar Bhaduri, said while inaugurating the 5th International Congress of the International Institute of Welding held here on Thursday.
Once the nearly Rs 5,600 crore PFBR, completely designed by IGCAR and by Bhartiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI), goes critical, it would mark India's entry into the second stage of its three-stage nuclear power programme.
Arun Kumar Bhaduri said "fast breeder reactors are far safer than the current generation of nuclear plants and that all efforts were being made to soon kickstart India's first commercial fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam." It is called a breeder reactor because it breeds more fuel than it consumes.
The PFBR would be using Uranium-238 not thorium, to breed new fissile material, in a sodium-cooled fast reactor design. The surplus plutonium (or uranium-233 for thorium reactors) from each fast reactor could be used to set up more such reactors and grow the nuclear capacity in tune with India's needs for power.
The reactor will be a pooltype reactor with 1,750 tonnes of sodium as coolant. Designed to generate 500 MW of power, with an operational life of 40 years, it will burn a mixed uraniumplutonium fuel (Mixed Oxide Fuel-MOX), a mixture of PuO 2 and UO2.
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