India's 3-Stage Nuclear Program

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Why in News?
• India’s 3-Stage Nuclear Program
• Understanding the 3-Stages of India’s Nuclear Program
• How does the PFBR (Stage II) Work?
• Why was the PFBR (Stage II) Delayed?
• Challenges Ahead for the Stage II of India’s Nuclear Program

Why in News?

• Recently, the Indian PM witnessed the start of the process of core-loading the indigenous prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) at the Madras Atomic Power Station in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu.
• This is a historic milestone, marking entry into the vital second stage of India’s three stage nuclear program.

India’s 3-Stage Nuclear Program

• India's three-stage nuclear power programme was formulated by the well-known physicist Homi Bhabha in the 1950s -
  • To achieve country’s long term energy security, independence and sustainable development,
  • Through the use of uranium and vast thorium reserves.
• The three stages are:
  • Natural uranium fuelled Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs)
  • Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs) utilising plutonium-based fuel
  • Advanced nuclear power systems for utilisation of thorium
• Thorium is particularly attractive for India, as India has only around 1–2% of the global uranium reserves, but one of the largest shares of global thorium reserves (~25%).
  • However, thorium is more difficult to use than uranium as a fuel because it requires breeding, and global uranium prices remain low enough that breeding is not cost effective.
• The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is carrying out indigenous R&D activities for development of Advanced Nuclear Power systems in line with the 3-stage nuclear power program.
• The three stages are expected to allow the country complete self-sufficiency in nuclear energy.

Understanding the 3-Stages of India’s Nuclear Program

• In the first, India used PHWRs and natural uranium-238 (U-238), which contains minuscule amounts of U-235, as the fissile material.
  • The heavy water in PHWR – water molecules containing the deuterium isotope of hydrogen – slows neutrons released by one fission reaction.
  • The heavy water is pressurised to prevent it from boiling. The reactions produce plutonium-239 (Pu-239) and energy.
  • Only U-235, not U-238, can sustain a chain reaction but it is consumed fully in stage I.
• In stage II, India will use Pu-239 together with U-238 in the PFBR to produce energy, U-233 and more Pu-239.
  • The DAE set up a special-purpose vehicle in 2003 called Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam, Ltd. (BHAVINI) to implement stage II.
• In stage III, Pu-239 will be combined with thorium-232 (Th-232) in reactors to produce energy and U-233.

How does the PFBR (Stage II) Work?

• A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that produces more fissile material than it consumes.
  • In a ‘fast’ breeder reactor, the neutrons aren’t slowed, allowing them to trigger specific fission reactions.
• PHWRs use natural or low-enriched U-238 as the fissile material and produce Pu-239 as a byproduct.
• This Pu-239 is combined with more U-238 into a mixed oxide and loaded into the core of a new reactor together with a blanket.
  • This is the material with which the core's fission products react to make more Pu-239.
• It uses liquid sodium, a highly reactive substance, as coolant in two circuits.
  • Coolant in the first circuit enters the reactor and leaves with (heat) energy and radioactivity.
  • Via heat-exchangers, it transfers only the heat to the coolant in a secondary circuit.
  • The latter transfers the heat to generators to produce electricity.
• The use of Throium-232, which in itself is not a fissile material, as a blanket is also envisaged in this stage.
  • By transmutation, Thorium will create fissile Uranium-233 which will be used as fuel in the third stage.
• FBR is thus a stepping stone for the third stage of the program paving the way for the eventual full utilization of India’s abundant thorium reserves.
• The PFBR has a capacity of 500 MWe. In 2019, the DAE proposed building 4 more FBRs of 600 MWe capacity each – two in Kalpakkam from 2021 and two from 2025, with sites to be selected.

Why was the PFBR (Stage II) Delayed?

• The fast breeder test reactor (FBTR) at Kalpakkam is a testing ground for PFBR technologies.
• It was built by 1977 but sanctions against India’s ‘Smiling Buddha’ nuclear test forced the use of a mixed carbide fuel over enriched uranium (which France was to deliver).
  • The former lowered the power output and changed operating conditions.
• By the time the Indian government started the PFBR in 2003, most people who worked on the FBTR were also nearing or had completed retirement.
• In a 2014 audit, the CAG discovered that BHAVINI had improperly handled the purchase of several PFBR components by becoming overly reliant on the NPCIL.
  • Other causes of delay included technical difficulties with the reactor coolant.
• As a result, the cost of PFBR had ballooned to Rs 6,800 crore (by 2019) after multiple extensions of the deadline.
  • The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR, Kalpakkam) designed the PFBR and the original cost was Rs 3,492 crore and the original deadline was 2010.

Challenges Ahead for the Stage II of India’s Nuclear Program

• FBRs are harder to handle than other reactor designs.
  • The thorium fuel cycle produces caesium-137, actinium-227, radium-224, radium-228, and thorium-230, which are all radioactive in ways that complicate their handling and storage.
• In 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) urged India to set up an independent statutory atomic regulator instead.
  • The DAE had responded with the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) Bill, which sought to replace the Atomic Energy Regulatory Body (AERB) with the NSRA.
  • But it was criticised for allowing the Union government too much control over the NSRA’s composition.
• Today, the tariff for solar electricity is under Rs 2.5/kWh whereas nuclear electricity costs around Rs 4/kWh.
• The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster also shifted public opinion worldwide against nuclear power, slowing work on new facilities.
• However, nuclear power has a new lease on lifeas a result of India's pressure to decarbonise, cut its fossil fuel imports, and give its renewables sector some breathing space.
  • In 2023, NPCIL stated that it expects to "commission a nuclear power reactor every year" beginning in 2024.

Q1) What is the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL)?

The NPCIL is an Indian public sector undertaking (based in Mumbai) wholly owned by the Government of India and is responsible for the generation of electricity from nuclear power. NPCIL is administered by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).

Q2) What is the Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI)?

The BHAVINI is a wholly owned Enterprise of Government of India under the administrative control of the DAE incorporated in 2003 under the Companies Act, 1956. It was established with the objective of constructing and commissioning the first 500 MWe Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu. 

Source: PM witnesses the historic “Commencement of Core Loading” at India’s first indigenous Fast Breeder Reactor (500 MWe) at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu | TH | EnergyPortal