India's Indigenous Advanced Heavy Water Reactor Ready for Export Soon

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--India's indigenously designed Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) model will soon be available on the global market. The successful completion of the prototype model and trial runs at the at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Mumbai) mark the commencement of the third stage of India's ambitious nuclear energy program.

India's three-stage nuclear energy program covers the development of pressurized heavy water reactors and related fuel-cycle facilities during the first phase; fast breeder reactors, plutonium fuel fabrication and reprocessing plants as part of the second phase; and the utilization of thorium-enriched uranium (U-233) cycle to fuel nuclear ventures in the third phase. Accelerator driven subcritical (ADS) systems also figure in the program. ADS systems will serve primarily as consumption units for thorium and will breed fissile U-233 in the process. These systems are also expected to break up or burn out other radioactive byproducts and actinides with long half-lives, minimizing the storage complexities of radioactive waste to some extent.

According to the Chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission, Anil Kakodkar, the new model of the AHWR, running on a combination of thorium and low enriched uranium (LEU), has a relatively low fresh-uranium input requirement per unit of energy generated when compared to other contemporary reactor models.

With a power generation potential of 300 MW, the AHWR-LEU model has been designed to the highest safety standards, capable of meeting next-generation safety requirements. Safety-related features include a passive-containment cooling system and a gravity-driven water pool. The heat transfer system has been modeled to function purely by means of natural convection currents. A double containment mechanism has been adopted to achieve containment isolation. All air and water pipes within the system are U-shaped. Coolant tubes are longer than the height of the core so that, in the case of an emergency, water is released from the water pool into the ducts. Pressure in the ducts serves as insulation between the containment area and the immediate environment. Light water is used as a coolant in the system, while heavy water is used only as a moderator, thereby minimizing the costs and risks associated with the process.

A high level of fault tolerance, an operator grace-period of three days, and an absence of circulation pumps and exclusion zones are a few other characteristics of the AHWR-LEU, which is expected to have an active life span of 100 years. Further, the radioactive nature of the spent fuel prevents it from being used for weaponry purposes.

The AHWR-LEU model is ideally suited for medium-size reactors operating in regions with low grid capacities. The reactor core is capable of handling both thorium-U233 as well as thorium-plutonium fuel mixes and can be optimized to maximize energy output from thorium or minimize external plutonium input. Functional parameters can be controlled to maintain a negative void at all times. Spent fuel from the reactor could be disposed, stored, or recycled for further use. Based on earlier reports, the cost of the reactor is likely to be about $1 million to $1.25 million per megawatt of power generation capacity.

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