FBR and energy security

FBR and energy security

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Nuclear energy/science

India’s FBR programme

• India’s Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) program, initiated two decades ago, aims to develop comprehensive nuclear fuel cycle capabilities, including electricity production from uranium in nuclear power reactors.
• In 2003, under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd (BHAVINI) was established to construct and operate the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), marking India’s most advanced nuclear reactor project.
• Initially projected to complete by September 2010, technological challenges led to delays, with the latest completion target set for October 2022. Upon completion, India will become the second country, following Russia, to have a commercial operating FBR, positioning it ahead of China’s smaller fast breeder program. Programmes in countries such as Japan, France, and the United States were shut down amid safety concerns.

From ‘fertile’ to ‘fissile’

• India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has devised a three-stage power program aimed at harnessing the country’s abundant thorium reserves to generate electricity.
• These thorium reserves are located in coastal and inland placer sands across various states, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. Placer deposits, naturally concentrated by gravity, contain valuable minerals such as thorium (from monazite ore), gold, platinum, titanium, uranium, and rare earth elements.
• The vision for this nuclear power program, ensuring energy security, was developed by Dr. Homi J Bhabha and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai.
• They recognized the significance of Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs) which generate more nuclear fuel than they consume by converting fertile isotopes into fissile material.
• The program is structured in three stages, focusing on converting ‘fertile’ material into fissile material.
• For instance, uranium-238 is converted into plutonium-239 within nuclear reactors, and thorium-bearing monazite is transformed into fissile uranium-233.
• India follows a “closed fuel cycle” strategy, reprocessing spent fuel to separate useful isotopes (Pu239 and U233) for further use, which is crucial for multiplying the fissile inventory and eventually leveraging thorium in the program’s third stage.
• The FBR plays a vital role in this transition, setting the foundation for the full utilization of thorium resources.

Three stages and FBR

1. The first stage – the setting up of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) and associated fuel cycle facilities — is in progress.
   • PHWRs are reactors that use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water (deu-terium oxide) as coolant and moderator.
   • Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd operates 22 commercial reactors with an installed capacity of 6,780 MWe.
   • The programme has been supplemented by construction of imported Light Water Reactors (LWRs) – the first of two units built with Russian collaboration is already generating power.
2. The second stage involves the setting up of FBRs backed by reprocessing plants and plutonium fabrication plants, primarily to multiply the inventory of fissile material.
3. The third stage will be based on the Th-U233 cycle.
   • For producing U233, obtained by irradiation of thorium in PHWRs and FBRs, an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is proposed.

• The combination of power reactors from all the three stages is expected to ensure long-term energy security for the country.
• But the commercial utilisation of thorium on a significant scale can begin only when abundant supplies of either U233 or Pu239 are available.

Way forward hereafter

• The Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) will start its operations using a Uranium-Plutonium Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel, surrounded by a U238 ‘blanket’ that will produce additional fuel through nuclear transmutation.
• The India-US civil nuclear deal has further facilitated the process, allowing India to import uranium for domestic reactors and thereby accelerating the nuclear program.

Source: IE