pwr_april-2024 - 6

Long-Awaited Milestone: Fuel
Loading Begins at India's
Prototype Fast Nuclear Reactor
India in March began fuel loading at a
500-MWe/1,250-MWth prototype fastbreeder
reactor (PFBR) located at Kalpakkam,
Tamil Nadu, marking a crucial phase
for the second stage of the country's
ambitious three-stage nuclear program.
Fuel loading at the domestically developed
PFBR site (Figure 1) adjacent to
the Madras Atomic Power Station was
witnessed by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi on March 4. " Upon completion of
the core loading, the first approach to
criticality will be achieved, leading to the
generation of power subsequently, " the
Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.
Once commissioned, India will be
one of only a handful of countries with
an operating commercial fast-breeder
reactor (FBR).
The sodium-cooled, mixed oxide-fueled,
pool-type fast reactor project was
designed by India's Indira Gandhi Centre
for Atomic Research (IGCAR) based on
the success of IGCAR's 13.6-MWe/40MWth
fast breeder test reactor (FBTR),
an experimental sodium-cooled fast reactor
that has operated since 1985 using
a fuel mix of plutonium carbide and
uranium carbide. The 500-MW PFBR got
its start in October 2003, when the Indian
government set up a wholly owned
enterprise,
Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut
Nigam Ltd. (BHAVINI), and tasked it with
the construction, commissioning, and
operation of the project. Construction of
the reactor began in 2004.
For India, the PFBR is an integral
part of its three-pronged nuclear program,
which was developed largely
by renowned Indian physicist Homi
Bhabha during the country's almost
30-year-long isolation from international
nuclear trade that began in the
late 1960s. Excluded from the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and subject
to a 1974 trade embargo for acquiring
nuclear weapons capability, the
country embarked on the program that
champions self-reliance through the
development of domestic technology
that reduces its reliance on imported
uranium and strives to make more substantial
use of thorium, of which India
has more abundant reserves. The program
envisions a phased approach that
utilizes all three main fissionable ma6
1.
Fuel loading began in March 2024 at India's 500-MWe/1,250-MWth prototype fast-breeder
reactor (PFBR) located at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu. Courtesy: Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam
Ltd.
terials: uranium-235, plutonium, and
uranium-233 (U-233).
As POWER has reported, the first
step of the three-stage program involves
building indigenously engineered pressurized
heavy-water reactors (PHWRs)
and light-water reactors (LWRs) to
produce plutonium. The second stage
utilizes fast-neutron reactors fueled by
plutonium to breed U-233 from thorium.
In the third stage, using wholly indigenous
technology, including its fast reactors,
the country will use advanced
heavy-water reactors fueled with U-233
obtained from the irradiation of thorium
in PHWRs and fast reactors. Commercial
operation of the 500-MW PFBR at
Kalpakkam will mean India has attained
the program's second stage. The third
stage envisions an advanced heavywater
reactor (AHWR) and acceleratordriven
system (ADS).
While India kicked off the construction
of the PFBR project 20 years ago,
the project has gained significant new
emphasis under Atmanirbhar Bharat, a
2020-founded policy that upholds selfreliance.
Because FBRs typically have
a high
regeneration
factor,
they can
produce more potential fuel than they
consume and burn out highly active
transuranic elements (actinides), the
government noted in March. " Since it
uses the spent fuel from the first stage,
FBR also offers a great advantage in
terms of a significant reduction in nuclear
waste generated, thereby avoiding the
need for large geological disposal facilities, "
it said.
The PFBR at Kalpakkam will initially
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use
uranium-plutonium
mixed
oxide
fuel (MOX). " The uranium-238 'blanket'
surrounding the fuel core will undergo
nuclear transmutation to produce more
fuel, thus earning the name 'breeder,'
" the prime minister's office noted in
March. " The use of thorium-232, which
in itself is not a fissile material, as a
blanket is also envisaged in this stage.
Thorium will create fissile U-233 by
transmutation, which will be used as
fuel in the third stage. " The FBR is " thus
a steppingstone for the third stage of the
program, paving the way for the eventual
full utilization of India's abundant thorium
reserves, " it said.
According to the Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre, the three-pronged
strategy has grown more significant
considering the country's meager uranium
but abundant thorium reserves.
" The country has nuclear ores from
which a total of about 78,000 tonnes
of uranium metal and about 518,000
tonnes of thorium metal can be extracted, "
it said. " If all uranium resources
are first used in natural uranium-fueled
PHWRs, it is estimated that about 420
[gigawatt-years (GWe-yrs)] of electricity
can be produced. The resulting depleted
uranium and separated plutonium from
these PHWRs, if used in fast breeder
reactors (FBRs), could generate an additional
54,000 GWe-yrs of electricity, "
it said. " In these FBRs, production of
U-233 can also be achieved by loading
thorium assemblies in their blanket and
low-power zones. Eventually, by transitioning
to generations of Th-U233-fueled
breeder reactors, India should be
POWER | April 2024

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