Nuclear Energy

up in 2010 and produce power in 2011, but as we see in Chapter 9, this timeline is most probably
way of the mark.
4. Reprocessing
Unlike other countries, the DAE pursues reprocessing as a way of dealing with spent fuel.
India has three full-scale reprocessing plants, at Trombay, Tarapur and Kalpakkam, to extract
reactor-grade plutonium for use in the fast breeder reactors. The Trombay plant was commissioned
in 1965, the Tarapur plant was commissioned in 1977 but has been functioning much below
capacity, while the Kalpakkam Atomic Reprocessing Plant (KARP), with a capacity of 100 tHM/y,
was commissioned in 1998. cdx
5. Radioactive Waste Management
As discussed in Chapter 3, reprocessing results in large quantities of waste. The DAE
classifies the waste from its reprocessing plants into Low Level Waste (LLW), Intermediate Level
Wastes (ILW) and High Level Wastes (HLW).
Gaseous wastes produced during routine operations at nuclear reactors and reprocessing
plants are released through stacks (75-100 metres tall) into the environment after filtration.
Likewise low level liquid wastes – consisting mostly of tritium but also small quantities of Cesium-
137 and Strontium-90 – are released into nearby water bodies, such as the sea in the case of coastal
reactors. Data on such releases are scarce – and often conflicting – but suggest that releases at
Indian reactors are much higher compared to similar reactors elsewhere. Intermediate level liquid
wastes generated in reprocessing plants are concentrated and fixed in cement.
Geological Disposal of HLW Waste
Because it contains the bulk of the radioactivity in spent fuel, the greatest concern is HLW.
The DAE deals with this waste by immobilizing or vitrifying it – the waste is mixed with glass at a
high temperature and allowed to cool, which slows down the diffusion of radionuclides from HLW.
These blocks are stored at the Solid Storage & Surveillance Facility at Tarapur.
The DAE has proposed disposing of vitrified HLW in geological repositories about 500–600
metres below the ground in some appropriate host rock such as granite or basalt. Initially, deep
geological formations in the southern Indian peninsula were explored as likely burial sites. A
number of bore holes 0.6 miles deep were dug in an abandoned chamber of the Kolar gold mines to
test the formation’s behaviour under simulated radioactive decay heat. Those tests evidently did not
yield the desired results. Then, in 1999, it was reported that an area of about 100 square kilometres
in Rajasthan had been identified as suitable for burying wastes. This led to public protests from
local communities. Shortly afterwards, the government announced in parliament that it had not
taken any decisions on the disposal of nuclear waste, and such a decision might “take another two
decades of research and development”. So far no geological disposal site seems to have been
finalized. cdxi
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