India’s Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at advanced stage of completion

[thestringshredder]

India’s first commercial fast breeder reactor — the 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) — is in an advanced stage of completion at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, R.K. Sinha said.

“All the major equipment of the PFBR have been erected and the loading of the dummy fuels in peripheral locations is in progress,” he told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in the 21st Century at St. Petersburg, Russia on last Friday. Indigenously developed mixed-oxide type fuel pins for the PFBR’s first core were under manufacture and delivery.

When contacted, Prabhat Kumar, chairman and managing director, Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI) said 95 per cent of the PFBR construction had been completed. “We are now heading towards the final erection, integration and commissioning of the reactor. The reactor will go critical by September 2014,” he said.

The Nuclear Fuel Complex, Hyderabad, is manufacturing the reactor’s fuel bundles and they are being assembled in a workshop at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research at Kalpakkam.

The Centre had sanctioned Rs. 5,677 crore for building the PFBR and “we will definitely build the reactor within that amount” Mr. Kumar asserted. The original cost of the project was Rs. 3,492 crore and it was revised to Rs. 5,677 crore. Electricity generated from the PFBR would be sold to the State Electricity Boards at Rs. 4.44 a unit. BHAVINI builds the breeder reactors in India.

Link - India

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

The thorium revolution is coming.

 

[shuntmaster]

 

[Echo_419]

Good news hope we start exporting Nuke reactors to other countries

 

[Brahmos_2]

This is what I get from Wikipedia.

FBRs have been built and operated in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the former USSR, India and Japan

India’s first 40 MWt Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) attained criticality on 18 October 1985. India has developed the technology to produce the plutonium rich U-Pu mixed carbide fuel. This can be used in the Fast Breeder Reactor.

At present the scientists of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), one of the nuclear R & D institutions of India, are engaged in the construction (already in its final stages) of another FBR — the 500 MWe prototype fast breeder reactor - at Kalpakkam, near Chennai, with plans to build more as part of its three stage nuclear power program.

India has the capability to use thorium cycle based processes to extract nuclear fuel. This is of special significance to the Indian nuclear power generation strategy as India has one of the world's largest reserves of thorium, which could provide power for more than 10,000 years , and perhaps as long as 60,000 years.

It is said that 30% of worlds thorium reserves are located in India..India's western coast is highly thorium rich(especially Kerala & Karnataka). But since these areas are densely populated, the authorities may face huge public protests while mining

 

[senkakudefender]

Worlds largest actually. We rule the future.

 

[Gessler]

FBRs have been built and operated in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the former USSR, India and Japan

And to think some countries believe we don't have the technology to miniaturize nuclear
warheads.

 

[Brahmos_2]

 

[Brahmos_2]

And to think some countries believe we don't have the technology to miniaturize nuclear
warheads.

They are living in fools paradise!They even thinks they are superior than India in nuclear technology.

What India doing here is the smartest move which no country from the developing world ever tried.Most of the reactors in the word are Uranium based which India doesn't have any considerable reserves. Along with huge amount of energy,fast breeder reactor also produces Uranium & plutonium which we can use them in the existing nuclear reactors or we can even sell to other countries.