Before it's too late!!! India's Clean Nuclear Leapfrogging
By God's grace, India amounts to 30% of the world's Thorium reserve.
So, India is working on something amazing, India's first large-scale fast breeder reactor, going to be completed by Dec 2024 in Kalpakkam. Hence making it India's only Thorium-based nuclear plant.
Why Thorium?
Thorium is a light silver metal substance used as fuel in Advanced heavy-water reactors.
Once Homie J. Bhabha stated the fact that:
The total reserves of Thorium in India amount to over 500,000 tons in the readily extractable form, while the known reserves of uranium are less than a tenth of this. The aim of a long-range atomic power program in India must therefore be to base the nuclear power generation as soon as possible on thorium rather than uranium...
This reserve is so enormous that it will make India self-sufficient in energy so much so that it is believed to fuel India's growing energy demand for 10,000 to 60,000 years.
Thorium vs Uranium
Traditional Uranium 235 is best due to its simple series for a nuclear chain reaction, but it makes only one-tenth of what India has as Thorium reserve.
So, for the longer run, we need to look for Thorium as fuel.
The good news is that thorium can be converted into fissile Uranium 233 which is close to Uranium 235, when it's exposed to a series of reactions with neutrons.
Hence Thorium is a very good alternative to rare earth traditional Uranium 235.
Challenge
India is racing against the cost of exposing Thorium fuel to neutrons compared to easy traditional Uranium 235.
Why Thorium and India are in the news?
By December 2024 India's first Thorium-based nuclear reactor, named Kamini will be operational in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu.
It is going to be a hybrid nuclear plant that is designed to work on both traditional PFBR (Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor) which uses Uranium 235 and Thorium AHWR (Advanced Heavy Water Reactor)