India Civil Nuclear Program

Nilgiri

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All history, news and updates regarding Indian nuclear program to go here...especially concerning the larger research and development side.

A parallel thread in "Strategic forces" section may be created later to handle specific weapons related side of it.
 

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Btw India is also accused of stealing a ship containing heavy water in the late 70s with all its crew missing. The ship was never found back then. Years later its wreck was found in a scrapyard in Tamilnadu.

@Nilgiri
 

Nilgiri

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Btw India is also accused of stealing a ship containing heavy water in the late 70s with all its crew missing. The ship was never found back then. Years later its wreck was found in a scrapyard in Tamilnadu.

@Nilgiri

Yeah, with us it seem to be mostly heavy water related in that period of time.

Pakistan case was all kind of technology they got from Germany:


Most likely to set up precision gas centrifuge tech (we never did given our choice of plutonium route).
 

Nilgiri

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Some movement happening on the fast breeder (PFBR) project:


The picture in the article is incorrect, that is the VVER reactor at Kundankulam (further south on coastline) rather than research complex at Kalpakkam.

Earlier Pictures of PFBR (BHAVINI) facility: https://bhavini.nic.in/Userpages/PhotogalleryView.aspx

1604231428224.jpeg


Pressure vessel installation from circa 2010:


Clearer picture of the above event:

Aug-2015-Issue_page39_image35.jpg


Picture Source article with layman info and history+context of proejct:


More detailed paper on the program:


Reactor assembly diagram:

Reactor-assembly-of-PFBR.png


Example of contractor work (to private sector) for the project:



@Cabatli_53 @Deliorman @Test7 @ANMDT @#comcom @Paro @Gautam @T-123456 @Webslave
 

Mis_TR_Like

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Some movement happening on the fast breeder (PFBR) project:


The picture in the article is incorrect, that is the VVER reactor at Kundankulam (further south on coastline) rather than research complex at Kalpakkam.

Earlier Pictures of PFBR (BHAVINI) facility: https://bhavini.nic.in/Userpages/PhotogalleryView.aspx

View attachment 5363

Pressure vessel installation from circa 2010:


Clearer picture of the above event:

Aug-2015-Issue_page39_image35.jpg


Picture Source article with layman info and history+context of proejct:


More detailed paper on the program:


Reactor assembly diagram:

Reactor-assembly-of-PFBR.png


Example of contractor work (to private sector) for the project:



@Cabatli_53 @Deliorman @Test7 @ANMDT @#comcom @Paro @Gautam @T-123456 @Webslave

Impressive stuff. As the nation with the largest amount of thorium in the world, it will be interesting to see what India does with it. I don't know much about nuclear power, but I've heard that thorium has a lot of potential. India doesn't have much uranium, but its vast amounts of thorium could make it the first nation to use it to its maximum potential.
 

Nilgiri

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Impressive stuff. As the nation with the largest amount of thorium in the world, it will be interesting to see what India does with it. I don't know much about nuclear power, but I've heard that thorium has a lot of potential. India doesn't have much uranium, but its vast amounts of thorium could make it the first nation to use it to its maximum potential.

Yes with thorium and even plutonium, things get a bit more complicated compared to well established Uranium (that is also the starting process governing India's program).

Let me try explain a bit for the interested reader here (this will be all you need to know to impress someone on the topic):

The very basic reaction in most uranium reactors is governed by how many neutrons you can make meet U-235.

i.e U-235 + neutron (1) --> U-236 (very unstable) ---> Energy emitted + stable products + more neutrons

This is also how it works in a uranium based nuclear weapon. Except there you want an uncontrolled chain reaction of it involving the neutrons proliferating through the material - that is a long subject to get into...it involves enriching the uranium to very high levels of U-235.

A reactor on the other hand wants a steady flux of neutrons and neutron capture...so you get X amount of steady energy produced.

This neutron capture is what does the equation given above and produces energy (and more neutrons).

Nuclear reactors are thus really about one thing in the end: neutron management (or economy).

This extends to any fissile fuel source (not just Uranium...but Plutonium and Thorium and many of their isotopes i.e "versions")



Indian "3 step program" is no different, each stage harnesses the neutron flux for both energy production directly but to also produce new fuel for the next step (and last step produces fuel for itself). This is known as "breeding".

Step 1 is traditional PHWR design (CANDU from Canada is well known basis for it).

PHWR neutron management involves having less flux from the source (natural uranium which has only a few % of U-235) but using heavy water as the moderator to offer less transparency for the neutrons to escape without doing anything (i.e a higher capture rate).

This in contrast to light water reactors which use regular water but need refinement of the fuel to have higher U-235 present (though nowhere near like a bomb, hence its known as low-enriched uranium) to have higher source flux of neutrons so the neutron capture/energy balance is the same (since regular water is far more "transparent" to neutrons).

PHWR you can also introduce (NEW) natural uranium or depleted uranium to get the U-238 (the majority of natural uranium) to capture a neutron to turn into Plutonium (239)...i,e 238 + 1 = 239. You take away this plutonium as required (this is the first stage for a plutonium bomb too). Ideally you do this as seperate process to the uranium (used as the fundamental) energy source so you can control everything more optimally.

You can also extract it from spent rods (over time the U-238 there turns to Pu 239 or even Pu 240)....but that is more laborious and involved compared to regulated (NEW) bed-introduction and removal.



Step 2 is what will involve this FBR described in earlier post. The plutonium produced from step 1 will be the base reactor material (along with natural uranium mix for various reasons to long to get into here) to provide neutrons both for the fission energy production and extra neutrons for making new fissile material.

This extra neutron management involves introducing Thorium (232) to capture neutrons to turn it into Uranium-233. i.e 232 + 1 = 233.


Step 3 is then purely a U-233 reactor. U-233 is one of the lesser known fissile process (for both bomb and reactor design)

India is the only country in the world to have such a U-233 research reactor (KAMINI - 30kW).

This is ongoing research area...the scaling of which will be crucial to be using Thorium (since thorium itself is not a fuel but simply TURNED/BRED into a fuel by having a good access to surplus neutron economy by action of first two steps).

A picture is worth a 1000 words I suppose:

Indias-Three-Stage-Nuclear-Power-Programme-Homi-Baba.jpg


@Vergennes @Joe Shearer
 

Nilgiri

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A detailed paper on AHWR, which is basically the scaled up plan for the U-233 stage (which is also a breeder, given theres extra neutrons to use for Th 232 + 1 ---> U-233 which will then be refed into the reactor as fuel).



Design goal is also 300 MW for this scale up using what is learned/applied from KAMINI.
 

Nilgiri

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They are involved in the nuclear energy field, will be interesting to see how they do.
 

Nilgiri

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Indian ongoing contribution to the ITER project

@T-123456 @Cabatli_53 @Test7 @Bogeyman @MisterLike @Kartal1 @Vergennes @Anmdt @Gessler @Bilal Khan(Quwa) @Gautam
@Paro @Zapper @Indos @Viva_vietnamm @AlphaMike @Isa Khan @Saithan et al.





==========================================


The ITER cryostat—the largest stainless steel high-vacuum pressure chamber ever built (16,000 m³)—provides the high vacuum, ultra-cool environment for the ITER vacuum vessel and the superconducting magnets.

Nearly 30 metres wide and as many in height, the internal diameter of the cryostat (28 metres) has been determined by the size of the largest components its surrounds: the two largest poloidal field coils. Manufactured from stainless steel, the cryostat weighs 3,850 tonnes. Its base section—1,250 tonnes—will be the single largest load of ITER Tokamak assembly.

The cryostat has 23 penetrations to allow access for maintenance as well as over 200 penetrations—some as large as four metres in size—that provide access for cooling systems, magnet feeders, auxiliary heating, diagnostics, and the removal of blanket sections and parts of the divertor.

Large bellows situated between the cryostat and the vacuum vessel will allow for thermal contraction and expansion in the structures during operation. The structure will have to withstand a vacuum pressure of 1 x 10 -4 Pa; the pump volume is designed for 8,500 m³.

The four main cryostat sections will be assembled in an on-site workshop before their transport to the tokamak assembly site. Work began in 2016 (see more on on-site fabrication here).

==============================================


ON-SITE FABRICATION: CRYOSTAT​


In a 5,000-square-metre workshop on site, the Indian Domestic Agency is assembling the sections of the cryostat—a huge vacuum containment vessel that is also the single largest component of the ITER machine.

Completely surrounding the vacuum vessel and superconducting magnets, the 29 x 29 metre cryostat has two important roles to play—providing a vacuum environment to critical "cold" components (the magnets operating at 4.5 K and thermal shield operating at 80 K), and contributing structural reinforcement by supporting the mass of the machine and transferring horizontal and rotational forces to the radial walls.


Image 1: The cryostat is a vacuum-tight container that will completely surround the machine and provide an ultra-cool vacuum environment for the vacuum vessel and superconducting magnets.

1636839000586.png




The cryostat is a fully welded single wall stainless steel structure with a flat bottom, a rounded lid and wall thicknesses that range from 25 to 200 millimetres. A number of large openings provide access to vacuum vessel ports at three levels; others allow access for coolant pipework, cryo and current feedlines, and remote handling. Advanced welding techniques such as automated, all-position narrow groove gas tungsten arc welding have been specially developed for the fabrication of this challenging component.

Manufacturing is taking place in three stages: the fabrication of 54 segments in India; their subsequent assembly at ITER into four large sections (base, lower cylinder, upper cylinder, top lid); and the final assembly and welding of the large sections in the Tokamak Pit.


PUTTING IT TOGETHER​


Cryostat segments fabricated in India are shipped according to need dates to the ITER site and stored in the Cryostat Workshop.

Beginning with the cryostat base—the first cryostat section needed in the Tokamak assembly sequence—and ending with the cryostat lid, the sections are assembled and welded on large assembly frames. These frames act both as support platforms during the welding activities and as support fixtures that interface with the transport vehicles when the time comes to move the completed components out of the workshop.



Image 2: In the Cryostat Workshop, contractors to the Indian Domestic Agency are assembling and welding the last of four cryostat sections—the cryostat top lid. (February 2021)


1636838846937.png





Using optical metrology techniques and strict dimensional control, operators carefully align the segments to be welded on the assembly frames. A small team of highly specialized technicians—working singly or in teams (one above, one below)—fill the gaps between each segment with weld material. Given the importance of high vacuum in the cryostat, each weld is verified through a variety of leak detection techniques.

In helium leak detection, one-metre sections of the weld to be verified are "enclosed" within leak-tight boxes positioned on opposite surfaces. Helium injected on one side of the weld can be detected—if it has filtered through a crack—by a mass spectrometer on the other side, thereby signalling a leak that must be repaired by grinding out the faulty weld and replacing it.

Three other quality assurance techniques will be used: radiographic and ultrasonic testing to detect the presence of flaws that could challenge the structural integrity of the welds, and liquid penetrant testing (LPT) for surface checks.

In total, the Indian Domestic Agency estimates that one kilometre of full penetration weld joints will have to be carried out to exacting standards for the sub-assemblies in the site workshop, followed by several hundred metres of weld joints to assemble the cryostat sections in the Tokamak Pit.

It took approximately three years (2016 to 2019) to finalize the on-site assembly and welding operations for the cryostat base—a 1,250-tonne component formed from a tier 1 "disk" and a tier 2 vertical ring and pedestal.

On an adjacent assembly platform, the less-complex lower cylinder (375 tonnes) was assembled in two years (2017 to 2019) and removed to storage on the platform to make room for the assembly of the upper cylinder, which was completed in March 2020. The steel segments required for top lid assembly are now on site, and assembly and acceptance procedures should be completed by late 2021.

In May 2020, the 1,250-tonne cryostat base was transferred to the Assembly Hall, lifted by overhead crane, and inserted into the bottom of the Tokamak assembly pit. The lower cryostat was inserted next, in August 2020 (see the full report here), and the two section were fully welded together by Indian Domestic Agency contractors operating directly inside of the pit.

For more on ITER machine assembly see these pages.
 

Nilgiri

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Cryostat Assembly Facts:

  • Number of segments fabricated in India: 54
  • Sections assembled on site: cryostat base, lower cylinder, upper cylinder, top lid
  • Length of weld joints for in-workshop assembly (four sections): ~ 1,015 m
  • Length of weld joints for in-pit assembly: ~ 390 m
  • Diameter of sections: 30 metres (approximate)
  • Weight of each section: base: 1,250 tonnes; lower cylinder: 375 tonnes; upper cylinder: 430 tonnes; lid: 665 tonnes
  • Start of welding activities: 2016
  • Completed sections: lower cylinder, March 2019; cryostat base, June 2019; cryostat upper cylinder, March 2020
  • Installed in Tokamak pit: cryostat base, May 2020; cryostat lower cylinder, August 2020
  • Procurement responsibility: India
  • Contractors: Larsen & Toubro Heavy Engineering Division, India (manufacturing design, fabrication and assembly); MAN Energy Solutions, Germany (Larsen & Toubro sub-contractor for on-site welding); SPIE Batignolles TPCI, France (Larsen & Toubro sub-contractor for the realization of the Cryostat Workshop)
 

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--While the topic has been briefly covered before, this two-part article, written by @Gautam offers a more in-depth look at the program, accompanied by great diagrams & pictures, and slightly edited by me--​

India' 3 stage nuclear power program has been the object of my fascination for long. A program born in the early 1950s that would reach its final stage of fruition about 100 years later. Within those 100 years the country needs to invest 10s of billions in R&D to develop some incredibly complex & niche technologies most of which aren't commercially available & invest 100s of billions to actually build the nuclear plants. Oh and the research institutions working on this have been under international sanctions for many many years. Due to India's non-membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) & the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), they are cut off from the rest of the world & have to continue working in isolation for most of those 100 years. Add these problems with India's non-existent engineering, manufacturing & technological base in the 50s & this program is easily one of the most difficult ones we've ever undertaken.

file-20201104-13-14y2vew.jpg

The reason for taking up this program is well known. India's reserves of Uranium & Plutonium are limited. Much of our U & Pu reserve is/will be used for military purposes, from nuclear warheads to marine nuclear reactors. Our thorium reserves are huge, ~25% of global reserves of Th are in India. The Indian nuclear establishment estimates that the country could produce 500+ GWe for at least four centuries using just the country's economically extractable thorium reserves. For comparison, India' current installed electricity generation capacity (including all sources) is 388 GWe. It would be a shame to have so much Thorium & do nothing with it.

I am sure you already know this by now. But still lets go over the basics one more time. The 3 stages of the program are as follows:​

Stage I : Natural Uranium undergoes fission in a Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) to give us electricity. Plutonium & depleted Uranium are the by products. The depleted Uranium will be converted into Plutonium-239 via nuclear transmutation during reprocessing. Some other byproducts produced in small quantities & vitrified & sent to storage.

Stage II : Pu-239 from Stage 1 is reprocessed & mixed with natural Thorium to produce a Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX). MOX undergoes fission in a Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) to produce electricity. Plutonium & Uranium-233 are the by-products. The U-233 will be used in the 3rd stage where as the Plutonium will be reprocessed & used in the 2nd stage again. The FBRs will also produce small quantities of Curium (Cm), Americium (Am) & Neptunium (Np). All 3 of those will be converted to Pu & fed into the 3rd stage again.

Stage III : The final stage will use a MOX prepared from U-233 obtained from Stage-2 & natural Thorium. The fission will take place in an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) producing electricity & U-233 as byproduct. The byproduct can be used to make more MOX to feed the AHWRs.

Screenshot (825).png

Two types of reactor technologies were available to us for the Stage 1; Light Water Reactors (LWR) & Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR). LWRs use enriched Uranium or MOX as fuel & are cooled by light water where as PHWR use natural Uranium & are cooled by heavy water. The difference between Light & Heavy waters is the isotope of hydrogen in the water, the former has protium & the later has deuterium.

Adopting any of the 2 reactor types brought its own technological challenges as India then could neither enrich Uranium nor produce heavy water. This was a very critical choice, thankfully we made the right choice. PHWRs were chosen as the way ahead. BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre) correctly estimated that developing & deploying large scale Uranium enrichment facilities would take more time & money than developing & deploying large scale heavy water production facilities.

PHWR_under_Construction_at_Kakrapar_Gujarat_India.jpg

Indigenously developed IPHWR-700 (700MWe) reactors being installed at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS)

Also there was the military angle. Heavy water in PHWRs occasionally get bombarded by neutrons. This causes some of the deuterium in heavy water to convert to tritium. Tritium is radioactive & needs to be removed from the heavy water reservoirs. BARC developed a method by the name Liquid Phase Catalytic Exchange (LPCE) for the removal of Tritium. After the removal Tritium is stockpiled & later used in making thermonuclear weapons. Not a lot is known about the LPCE process, for obvious reasons it is shrouded in secrecy. Of course that's not the only way of producing Tritium nor is it the most efficient way. It is however the cheapest way. Some decades back we started producing Tritium by irradiating Lithium-6 directly in the IPHWR family of reactors.

Somewhere along the way we developed our own enrichment technology & deployed in en-masse. Enrichment tech was developed for preparing fuel for the fission & boosted-fission bombs. Interesting how military and civilian needs feed each other. The deployment of enrichment facilities brought the previously discarded LWRs back into the picture. With the signing of the India-US civil nuclear deal in 2005, the foreign LWR reactor tech & more importantly nuclear fuel became available.

We signed deals with Russia & then France for LWR & life time supply of nuclear fuel for these reactors. There was a deal in the making with the Americans too, though it might be dead by now, however the most critical benefit that India received from this deal, directly or indirectly, was that it was now treated as a de-facto member of NSG able to carry out nuclear commerce thanks to a special waiver, the only such known waiver granted to a nuclear weapons state, even though de-jure it was not. We've also signed deals to import nuclear fuel from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Australia etc. Now the 1st & 2nd stage of the program looks like this:

Screenshot (826).png

The idea is to use foreign LWR to generate electricity, thus freeing up local Uranium & Plutonium for you know what. The PHWRs though are going to be our own design & fueled by our own Uranium. Have to keep those PHWRs away from IAEA safeguards if we want to keep producing & stockpiling Tritium. We are also in the process of converting the Arihant class SSBN's CLWR-B1 reactor into a full scale 900 MWe civilian LWR reactor named IPWR-900.

CLWR-B1.JPG

A shore-based test & training version of the CLWR-B1 Pressurized Water Reactor, crews were certified on this prior to deployment on the Arihant-class SSBNs.

The IPHWR family of reactors started off as direct derivatives of the Canadian CANDU reactors. Eventually larger, more reactors with better safety parameters were developed. The original CANDU were barely Generation II safety standard compliant. Whereas the IPHWR-700, the current backbone of our nuclear reactor fleet, is Generation III+ compliant. Can the IPHWR family still be considered CANDU derivatives? I'll leave that to your judgement.

In 2016-2017 the following was the projection of the installed nuclear power generation capacity:

Screenshot (827).png

With the pandemic, budgetary problems & the stellar rise of thermal/hydro/solar/wind power installation in the country expect the timelines shown above to be pushed back by a few years at least.

Our current installed nuclear power generation capacity is 6.78 GWe. In the post above you can see we will reach 22.48 GWe by 2031.

The upper limit of installed capacity from the IPHWR family & various research reactors using domestic Uranium is ~10 GWe. 6 GWe will come from the 6 units of the Russian VVER-1000 reactors in Kudankulam & 9.9 GWe from the 6 units of French EPR at Jaitapur. Total power from imported reactors is 15.9 GWe. Therefore total installed power capacity from Stage 1 from both domestic & imported reactors is ~25.9 GWe.

If by 2031 we will have 22.48 GWe, then we should be able to install the balance ~3 GWe & reach the maximum capacity limit of the Stage 1 by 2035. From then on there will be no further increase in Stage 1 reactors as shown in the graph above.

As we are implementing the Stage 1 we are also entering early implementation of Stage 2 of the program with the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).
The physical testing phase of the Stage 2 began in October 1985 when the 40 MWt Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) attained criticality. The reactor ran into problems soon & had to be shut down in 1987 & then again in 1989. By the end of the 90s, IGCAR had a good understanding of the reactor & it would run at full capacity for the next 2 decades.

Based on the experience of the FBTR the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) program started in the 90s. PFBR is a 500 MWe reactor that would provide validation for the full sized FBR-600. FBR-600 or Fast Breeder Reactor-600 is a 600 MWe scaled up version of the PFBR. The FBR-600 will be the main reactor for the Stage 2 of the program. Construction was supposed to begin in 2007 in Kalpakkam, but some design changes caused inordinate delays.

Design concept of the PFBR:

1639830471037.png


--Some construction images--

Here you can see the reactor vessel being lifted by a crane:

nuclear-reactor-bccl.jpg


Vessel being inserted into the designated spot. The vessel was manufactured by L&T's Nuclear Engineering division:

images-3.jpeg


Mounting equipment on top of the vessel:

1639833827301.png


The PFBR facility nearly complete:

1639830402856.png

In the winter session of the Parliament in 2020 responding to a question in the Lok Sabha Dr. Jitendra Singh said the PFBR will be operational by December of 2021.

1639830528695.png

We are now in December 2021. When asked the same question Dr. Jitendra Singh responded the commissioning date has been delayed to October 2022. Almost a year from now. 😑

The advantage of breeder reactors is that they produce more fuel than they consume. The PFBR/FBR-600 will produce Plutonium & Uranium, this surplus Plutonium bred in each FBR can be used to set up more such reactors. Thus the problem of lack of Uranium & Plutonium which stops the growth of nuclear power in India is greatly reduced but not completely gone. You can completely remove that problem once you can bring in the country's Thorium into play.

It is estimated that once India's nuclear power installed capacity reaches 50 GWe we will have enough Plutonium & Uranium to bring the 3rd stage online. 25 GWe is supposed to come from Stage 1, so we roughly need another 25 GWe from Stage 2 to start making Stage 3 reactors. We will need ~40 breeder reactors of 600 MWe capacity to get to 25 GWe. That's a lot of reactors. Maybe we should make a 1 GWe FBR...

The various types of Stage-3 reactors being studied will be covered in Part-2, stay tuned.

@Nilgiri @Cabatli_53 @MisterLike @Test7 @Zapper @crixus @BordoEnes @Bogeyman @UkroTurk @guest12 @Fuzuli NL @500 @Vergennes @Vaggos @Bilal Khan(Quwa) @Paro @VCheng @LegionnairE @T-123456
 
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Gessler

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Now on we go with the Stage-3 of India's nuclear power program.​

The Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is the main proposed reactor for the 3rd stage of the program. The AHWR is an advanced fuel cycle reactor compliant to Generation III+ safety standards using fuel clusters comprising of Th-232/U-233 Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX) & Th-232/Pu-239 Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX). The Thorium would be from natural sources but the Uranium & Plutonium would be fission byproducts from the Stage-2 Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs).

Screenshot (828).png

All the fuel bundles will be produced at the Advanced Fuel Fabrication Facility (AFFF), BARC at Tarapur. AFFF also provides fuel for IPHWR & the FBR families making it the only nuclear fuel production facility in the world that has expertise in processing Uranium, Plutonium & Thorium. The current model of the AHWR is rated to produce 300 MWe & is hence named AHWR-300. But like the IPHWR family the AHWR is also scalable. More powerful reactors can be made by simply enlarging the design.

Screenshot (829).png

AHWR's development started in the late 90s, detailed design phase ended by 2002. Component fabrication & testing began by 2005 & was completed by 2016. By 2017-18 design was in final stages of validation. Plans for deciding the location for setting up the AHWR was supposed to be called by soon.

Screenshot (833).png

Since then there has been radio silence, in December 2021 we still don't have any new info. Have they decided on the location for setting up the said reactors ? We don't know.

The problem with the 3 stage nuclear power program is the long doubling time needed for full scale Thorium reactor deployment. In our case we need to operate Stage-2 FBRs for 30-40 years before we've built up enough Uranium & Plutonium for full scale utilization of Thorium. Even if we spend 10s of billions on FBRs we still have to wait another 3-4 decades before AHWRs can become mainstream.

What do we do about our growing energy needs in these 3-4 decades? Keep burning coal? That's not viable. So renewables it is. This realization has caused the nuclear establishment to be increasingly feel threatened. The rise of renewable, especially solar, energy installation across the nation has put a question mark on the need & want for more nuclear reactors. Well previously a case could be made about the transient nature of renewable energy but the increasing deployment of grid scale battery systems makes that argument shaky.

So as New Delhi keeps ploughing in more money onto renewables the amount of money left for nuclear is less. Remember we had to wait 3-4 decades after the full scale deployment of the Stage-2. The way things are going we might not see full scale deployment of FBRs at all. There is of course no way a Stage-3 can happen without a Stage-2.

So the nuclear establishment had to come up with a way to keep the govt. funding coming. They needed to find some way of cutting down the waiting time to something more acceptable. If the lure of near unending Thorium based nuclear power wasn't enough how about some green hydrogen along with that? That's the promise of a High Temperature Reactor.

1639927115462.png

Why Hydrogen? What's green Hydrogen? That's a long story. Google it you will know most of what you need to know. I'll tell you that all of the hydrogen we produce now are brown & grey hydrogen. The govt. wants to make India a global hub for production & exports of green hydrogen.

Since the early 2000s BARC has been working on a prototype High Temperature Reactor called the Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR). Besides producing electricity the CHTR would be capable of causing a thermo-chemical breakdown of water to produce green hydrogen. The thermo chemical splitting process of water holds the great promise, as it has the potential to generate large quantities of hydrogen, with a high degree of efficiency (40-57%). Temperatures of ~1000 deg C is needed to carry out the process. How do you generate that temperature? With a High Temperature Reactor.

Screenshot (834).png

The CHTR is a technology demonstrator to validate concepts & prove technologies necessary to build full-scale Indian High Temperature Reactor (IHTR). The CHTR is an advanced fuel cycle reactor with Generation IV safety levels generating 100 KW of thermal power which in turn produces heat of ~1100 deg C. The heat would be used to produce hydrogen, the reject heat would produce electricity & the waste heat could be used for desalination. A mixture of Uranium-233 & Thorium-232, weighing 2.4 kg & 5.6 kg respectively, would fuel the CHTR's Core, that would require refueling every 15 years.

CHTR fuel bed.png


Once the CHTR is validated its larger cousin IHTR can be built. The plan is very similar to what we saw with the Stage-2 reactors. IHTR's proposed design is shown below:

Screenshot (840).png

Screenshot (842).png


Specs of the IHTR:

Screenshot (841).png

The IHTR can produce ~7 tons of green Hydrogen per hour & 9 million liters of drinkable water per day. Water is also becoming a problem in many part of the country. As the CHTR will be small enough to be truck mobile it is also proposed as a solution to provide electricity to many remote areas of the country that are not connected to the national electric grid.

No doubt the CHTR/IHTR is a great package. It is also the tool the country's nuclear establishment has chosen to counter the threat from ever expending solar/wind projects. BARC & IGCAR is known to have made many presentations & proposals to the govt. in the recent past about funding the CHTR/IHTR projects.

Recently they are also sounding off to the media to garner some attention. Articles have started coming out in regular intervals about the indispensability of nuclear power to the nation. A few examples are below:

India can’t meet net-zero target without nuclear power, says Anil Kakodkar

Bringing back reactors for green hydrogen

Will they succeed in convincing New Delhi? We will see.

Besides the CHTR/IHTR, other types of reactors are also in consideration that will directly use Thorium. Namely the Indian Molten Salt Breeder Reactor (IMSBR) & the Indian Accelerator Driven Systems (IADS). IMSBR is a typical reactor but the IADS is a subcritical reactor. Both are still in early phases of design. IMSBR is a completely indigenous effort whereas IADS started as an indigenous program & is now a JV - we signed a deal with Fermi Labs of the US to jointly develop the IADS.

image-2.jpg

Representative example of a ADS sub-critical reactor

Either way the Stage 3 of the nuclear energy program will certainly be more eventful than the last phases. Interesting times ahead!
 

Rajendra Chola

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Now on we go with the Stage-3 of India's nuclear power program.​

The Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is the main proposed reactor for the 3rd stage of the program. The AHWR is an advanced fuel cycle reactor compliant to Generation III+ safety standards using fuel clusters comprising of Th-232/U-233 Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX) & Th-232/Pu-239 Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX). The Thorium would be from natural sources but the Uranium & Plutonium would be fission byproducts from the Stage-2 Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs).


All the fuel bundles will be produced at the Advanced Fuel Fabrication Facility (AFFF), BARC at Tarapur. AFFF also provides fuel for IPHWR & the FBR families making it the only nuclear fuel production facility in the world that has expertise in processing Uranium, Plutonium & Thorium. The current model of the AHWR is rated to produce 300 MWe & is hence named AHWR-300. But like the IPHWR family the AHWR is also scalable. More powerful reactors can be made by simply enlarging the design.


AHWR's development started in the late 90s, detailed design phase ended by 2002. Component fabrication & testing began by 2005 & was completed by 2016. By 2017-18 design was in final stages of validation. Plans for deciding the location for setting up the AHWR was supposed to be called by soon.


Since then there has been radio silence, in December 2021 we still don't have any new info. Have they decided on the location for setting up the said reactors ? We don't know.

The problem with the 3 stage nuclear power program is the long doubling time needed for full scale Thorium reactor deployment. In our case we need to operate Stage-2 FBRs for 30-40 years before we've built up enough Uranium & Plutonium for full scale utilization of Thorium. Even if we spend 10s of billions on FBRs we still have to wait another 3-4 decades before AHWRs can become mainstream.

What do we do about our growing energy needs in these 3-4 decades? Keep burning coal? That's not viable. So renewables it is. This realization has caused the nuclear establishment to be increasingly feel threatened. The rise of renewable, especially solar, energy installation across the nation has put a question mark on the need & want for more nuclear reactors. Well previously a case could be made about the transient nature of renewable energy but the increasing deployment of grid scale battery systems makes that argument shaky.

So as New Delhi keeps ploughing in more money onto renewables the amount of money left for nuclear is less. Remember we had to wait 3-4 decades after the full scale deployment of the Stage-2. The way things are going we might not see full scale deployment of FBRs at all. There is of course no way a Stage-3 can happen without a Stage-2.

So the nuclear establishment had to come up with a way to keep the govt. funding coming. They needed to find some way of cutting down the waiting time to something more acceptable. If the lure of near unending Thorium based nuclear power wasn't enough how about some green hydrogen along with that? That's the promise of a High Temperature Reactor.


Why Hydrogen? What's green Hydrogen? That's a long story. Google it you will know most of what you need to know. I'll tell you that all of the hydrogen we produce now are brown & grey hydrogen. The govt. wants to make India a global hub for production & exports of green hydrogen.

Since the early 2000s BARC has been working on a prototype High Temperature Reactor called the Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR). Besides producing electricity the CHTR would be capable of causing a thermo-chemical breakdown of water to produce green hydrogen. The thermo chemical splitting process of water holds the great promise, as it has the potential to generate large quantities of hydrogen, with a high degree of efficiency (40-57%). Temperatures of ~1000 deg C is needed to carry out the process. How do you generate that temperature? With a High Temperature Reactor.


The CHTR is a technology demonstrator to validate concepts & prove technologies necessary to build full-scale Indian High Temperature Reactor (IHTR). The CHTR is an advanced fuel cycle reactor with Generation IV safety levels generating 100 KW of thermal power which in turn produces heat of ~1100 deg C. The heat would be used to produce hydrogen, the reject heat would produce electricity & the waste heat could be used for desalination. A mixture of Uranium-233 & Thorium-232, weighing 2.4 kg & 5.6 kg respectively, would fuel the CHTR's Core, that would require refueling every 15 years.

View attachment 37512

Once the CHTR is validated its larger cousin IHTR can be built. The plan is very similar to what we saw with the Stage-2 reactors. IHTR's proposed design is shown below:

View attachment 37513
View attachment 37514

Specs of the IHTR:

View attachment 37515

The IHTR can produce ~7 tons of green Hydrogen per hour & 9 million liters of drinkable water per day. Water is also becoming a problem in many part of the country. As the CHTR will be small enough to be truck mobile it is also proposed as a solution to provide electricity to many remote areas of the country that are not connected to the national electric grid.

No doubt the CHTR/IHTR is a great package. It is also the tool the country's nuclear establishment has chosen to counter the threat from ever expending solar/wind projects. BARC & IGCAR is known to have made many presentations & proposals to the govt. in the recent past about funding the CHTR/IHTR projects.

Recently they are also sounding off to the media to garner some attention. Articles have started coming out in regular intervals about the indispensability of nuclear power to the nation. A few examples are below:

India can’t meet net-zero target without nuclear power, says Anil Kakodkar

Bringing back reactors for green hydrogen

Will they succeed in convincing New Delhi? We will see.

Besides the CHTR/IHTR, other types of reactors are also in consideration that will directly use Thorium. Namely the Indian Molten Salt Breeder Reactor (IMSBR) & the Indian Accelerator Driven Systems (IADS). IMSBR is a typical reactor but the IADS is a subcritical reactor. Both are still in early phases of design. IMSBR is a completely indigenous effort whereas IADS started as an indigenous program & is now a JV - we signed a deal with Fermi Labs of the US to jointly develop the IADS.

image-2.jpg

Representative example of a ADS sub-critical reactor

Either way the Stage 3 of the nuclear energy program will certainly be more eventful than the last phases. Interesting times ahead!

Unfortunately I believe PFBR has been delayed very long by now. It's original date was supposed to be 2017.
I would say it's right now under debug. It has been turned on and off I believe and engineers trying to resolve issues. Hopefully we get them resolved. PFBR is very essential in long term plans for India.

But a very nice read.
 

Nilgiri

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Kudos to you both @Gessler @Gautam .

Earlier thread with some previous info (I go into neutron economy and related):


I might archive this there too over time.

===========================

Unfortunately I believe PFBR has been delayed very long by now. It's original date was supposed to be 2017.
I would say it's right now under debug. It has been turned on and off I believe and engineers trying to resolve issues. Hopefully we get them resolved. PFBR is very essential in long term plans for India.

But a very nice read.

Yes PFBR is facing big challenges and delays now.

Recently they come out that the target date is now oct 2022, the related fuel cycle facility will come online around 2027:



Singh said installed nuclear power capacity had increased by 40% in seven years and that the 500MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) being built by Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (Bhavini) at Kalpakkam is at the integrated commissioning stage. “The project was originally sanctioned in 2003 and expected completion was September 2010. According to the latest approval, the revised completion target for the project is October 2022,” he said.

He added that the fast reactor fuel cycle facility (FRFCF) project is currently being executed by the Nuclear Recycle Board, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the Department of Atomic Energy. The progress of the project as of 30 November was 32% and it is expected to be completed by December 2027.
 

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