Here's a summary of what I learnt from my recent trip to Kaiga.
The Department of Atomic Energy or DAE’s CIRUS research reactor is due to be phased out this year. However, according to Srikumar Banerjee, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Secretary, DAE, a replacement is on the anvil, although it will take a few years to come online. Speaking at the recently held Kaiga-4 criticality celebrations, Banerjee added that radio-isotope production though is not expected to suffer.
CIRUS, a 40 megawatt (MW) research reactor supplied by Canada in the fifties and loaded with US origin heavy water, was the source of the plutonium used in India’s first nuclear test at Pokharan in 1974 and the subject of much controversy between India, Canada and the United States. Over the years, besides aiding India’s strategic programmes, CIRUS has also become a major source for important medical isotopes. Nevertheless, it is due to be phased out this year under the terms of the Indo–US 123 agreement signed in 2008.
The phasing out of CIRUS however is not expected to adversely affect isotope availability in the country as remedial steps are already underway. These steps include a refurbishment of the 100 MW Dhruva reactor which was concluded recently and an up-rating of the Apsara reactor from 1 to 2 MW. Moreover, the Apsara reactor will no longer use imported fuel and will only be laden with domestically fabricated fuel in the future.
The AEC chairman also highlighted the increasing prospects for Cobalt-60 (an important isotope for agricultural and medical applications) production in country. DAE is making use of 12 existing Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) by loading Cobalt-59 as a central rod in them and getting Cobalt-60 as a by-product; indeed, this may lead to India becoming one of the largest producers of Cobalt-60 in the world.
The replacement for CIRUS is being billed as a multi-purpose research reactor (MPRR) and is slated to come up in the new BARC campus at Vishakapatnam. The focus is stated to be on radio-isotope production and material testing. However, when asked whether this reactor will also be coupled with an accelerator-driven system (ADS) in the future, Banerjee replied, “There has been a re-think on this and it is, as of now, not being considered”.
ADSs are an important part of DAE’s strategy for completing the third stage of India’s nuclear programme which aims to utilize the country’s abundant thorium reserves. However, Banerjee believes that research on the third stage was “progressing smoothly” through other DAE reactors and facilities, and therefore it was decided that the MPRR be tailored to meet more urgent requirements such as materials testing and isotope production. He added that this was precisely why that the MPRR is being designed with an emphasis on high neutron flux as opposed to capacity rating.
In the future, the cornerstone of thorium research in the country will be the 300 MWe Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) on which construction activity is expected to begin soon, even though a site has not been finalized yet. Realistically though, large scale thorium deployment is still “25–30 years away”, according to Banerjee.
Meanwhile, the first stage of DAE’s programme seems to be undergoing some re-orientation as well, primarily owing to India’s new-found access to foreign uranium coupled with breakthroughs in enrichment technology. DAE is confident of launching an indigenous Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) design by 2020 in addition to the imported PWRs and domestic PHWRs which are being set up in the country. This newfound focus on indigenous PWR technology is now being considered an important part of DAE’s aim to attain 62,000 MW installed capacity in the country by 2032.
