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The Forum > Article Comments > India’s fast breeder nuclear reactors and Australian uranium: an absence of safeguards? > Comments

India’s fast breeder nuclear reactors and Australian uranium: an absence of safeguards? : Comments

By Marko Beljac, published 17/8/2007

In negotiations with India the government must state quite categorically that no Australian nuclear material may end up in fast breeder reactors.

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Howard is NOT CONSERVATIVE. Contracting Australia's uranium to India without the UN and or safeguards is the act of a maverick. Disgraceful. It is not good business, it is impulsive politics.

Howard is out of control - with himself and the future generally.

If a deal is worth doing it is worth doing properly. Nothing can remain secure with this kind of nuclear pathway (at least) without the right safeguards.

Howard has lost his marbles. His actions of late appear desperate.

Howard is begining to look like a dictator of a third world silo. I once respected this man, as I do other leaders who have held influence over our daily affairs, even though I may disagree.

I find Howard and his leadership extreme, distructive and scarey.

I fear his desperate lust for power and his regretful ruckus.

http://www.miacat.com/
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Posted by miacat, Monday, 20 August 2007 7:53:09 AM
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India's road map for utilization of thorium resources includes:
1) Development of PHWR
2) Development of Fast Breeders with MOX and Metallic fuels
3) Development of AHWR's
4) Development of Compact High Temperature Reactor CHTR's
5) Accelerator driven fast breeder reactors.

1st 500MWe breeder currently under construction at IGCAR will be operational by 2010. Construction of 2*500MWe fast breeders will start simultaneously at IGCAR in 2011 to be completed between 2016 and 2017. Followed by another two reactors at a selected location. All these breeder have enough feed stock of unsafeguarded plutonium required to feed them (8 unsafeguarded PHWR's which includes 2 new 500MWe reactors which are derated versons of 700MWe design + current unsafeguarded stockpile of reactor grade plutonium) till 2025 (considering doubling time as 15 years in worst case). The technology becomes mature around this time to commercialize. By this time all 5 * 500 MWe breeders will be using metallic fuels and doubling time will be brought down to 12 years. Anil Kakodkar has already stated that they will be going in for 1000MWe breeders after the initial 5 * 500MWe breeders (including PFBR).

The important point to note is AHWR will not need fissile material after 3rd year of operation or so and becomes completely self sustaining just need to keep feeding thorium. By this time you will have self sustaining chain reaction of fuel supply from old breeders to demand from new breeders and AHWR. So technically I don't see why we need to ever place breeder's in civilian domain. We can export the safeguarded plutonium along with AHWR or use it as MOX fuel in PHWR or LWR/BER reactor's.

If we want capacity expansion quickly we can build 700MWe PHWR, place them under safeguards and import fuel for them. The point here is not about expansion it is about complete independence (The separation plan is all about having enough capacity to feed all the breeders).
Posted by satish, Monday, 20 August 2007 7:56:42 AM
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Coastal states set to get nuclear power
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Coastal_states_set_to_get_nuclear_power_/articleshow/2285662.cms

Almost all coastal states will have atomic power plants once the Indo-US civil nuclear deal is signed and the Nuclear Power Corporation is identifying sites for setting up projects in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat and West Bengal that will generate over 30,000 MW.
...
Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu already has two 1,000 MW Russian plants and four more plants with the same capacity are expected to be added once the Indo-US deal is inked.
...
Jaitapur in Maharashtra has been cleared for the setting up of six 1,650 MW plants using European Power Reactors from the French company Areva, Nuclear Power Corporation Chairman S K Jain told media.
...
With the possibility of 40 billion dollars being invested in the nuclear power sector in the next 10 to 15 years once the Indo-US deal becomes a reality, Indian industries are likely to benefit from spin-offs, he said.
Posted by john frum, Monday, 20 August 2007 9:20:00 AM
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I would like to make a small correction to my earlier post. The two derated 700MWe reactors are TAPS-3&4 [Tarapur, Maharashtra] PHWR's 540 MWe (Date of commercial operation 18-August-2006 and 12-Sept-2005 respectively). All new PHWR reactors that will be built from now will have capacity >= 700MWe. 700 MWe reactors are essentially same reactors (size and design) with some modifications.

http://www.touchbriefings.com/pdf/2402/bhardwaj.pdf
http://www.indian-nuclear-society.org.in/conf/2005/pdf_3/topic_03/T3_CP5_Vohra.pdf
Posted by satish, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 1:44:56 PM
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I would like to thank everybody for offering specific technical details, and I can't beat them so I won't try.

It seems that there is a tradeoff here where we can either
1) avoid selling uranium to India and encourage their breeder reactor development, or
2) sell uranium, and add to their total supply of nuclear material available.

While it is always possible to build more nuclear weapons given more fissile material, let's remember that only two nuclear weapons have been used in the history of the world, both in 1945. It doesn't take too many weapons to cause a big problem, and India and Pakistan both have them already. I wish there was a realistic chance to stop proliferation, but denying nuclear fuel to India won't do it.

India is intent on developing nuclear power, and I agree with that goal. To avoid pollution of many kinds, nuclear power needs to be the dominant energy source of the future. Unfortunately, India is a deeply troubled nation. Its talented people are underpaid, and many of them move overseas. Some go to Europe and North America, but others go to the oil rich Arabian states. The latter concerns me if India were to become the center of advanced fission power research.

I would like to see all kinds of nuclear power research successfully completed. Breeder reactors, the thorium cycle, and novel methods of reprocessing fuel or enhancing burn-down all are key to increasing the ratio of energy extraction to the production of long-lived radiotoxicity. However, I wish nations with low levels of emigration would lead that research. France, the US, and Japan all have the technology to pursue the research that India is doing now, but lack the political will.

It seems that the right choice is to provide India with such a large amount of nuclear fuel and foreign built reactors, at competitive prices, that when their next budget crunch comes they dump the expensive new fuel cycle. Next, finish that research in nations that can both afford it and avoid having their researchers emigrate.
Posted by kdavis, Sunday, 26 August 2007 6:12:06 PM
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