Nuclear Energy

up in 1971 at Kalpakkam to lead the breeder effort. In 1985, this was renamed the Indira Gandhi
Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR). Over the years, the center has emerged as the main hub of
activities related to India’s breeder program. dlx
The budget for the Fast Breeder Test Reactor was approved by the DAE in September 1971
and it was anticipated that the FBTR would be commissioned by 1976. It was to be a 40 megawatt
thermal (MWt)/13 megawatt electric (MWe or MW) reactor. But the reactor attained criticality only
in October 1985; and the steam generator began operating only in 1993. Since then, the reactor has
suffered numerous failures and accidents, which are actually inherent to sodium cooled fast breeder
reactors as discussed above and which make it much more dangerous than water cooled reactors.
Overall, its performance has been mediocre. It took 15 years before the FBTR even managed 50
plus days of continuous operation at full power (in 2001). In the first 20 years of its life, the reactor
has operated for only 36,000 hours, implying that the availability factor is only about 20 percent.
Despite this checkered history, IGCAR claims to have “successfully demonstrated the design,
construction and operation” of a fast breeder reactor. dlxi
this flawed experience, DAE began making plans for construction of a Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), which will
Based on
produce 1200 MW of thermal power and 500 MW of electricity. First expenditures on the PFBR were made in 1987-88, and it was reported in 1990
that the that the reactor would be on - line by 2000. In 2001, the chairman of the AEC announced that the PFBR would be commissioned by 2008.
Construction of the reactor was finally started in October 2004 and it was now expected to be commissioned in 2010 . dlxii There is no
information about when it will actually be achieved.
Even more worryingly, instead of the carbide fuel used in the FBTR, the PFBR will use
plutonium and uranium oxide based fuel. DAE has no experience of working with this fuel. Since
MOX is thousands of times more radioactive, in combination with liquid sodium as coolant, it
makes the PFBR susceptible to catastrophic accidents. dlxiii
Construction of a viable FBR is supposed to be the second stage of the DAE’s ambitious
three stage nuclear program. Given that India has not even built a properly functioning 10 MW
demonstration unit more than fifty years after the plan was first announced, the third stage –
breeders involving thorium and uranium-233 – is unlikely to materialize anytime in the foreseeable
Yet the DAE continues to parrot: “it remains a certainty that thorium-based nuclear energy systems will have to be a major component of
future.
the Indian energy mix in the long-term.”dlxiv In any case, even if the DAE succeeds in building them, the proliferation, waste, safety and cost
problems of thorium reactors differ only in detail from those of uranium reactors.
We should actually be heaving a sigh of relief at this failure of the AEC / DAE. Breeder
reactors are much more dangerous than even normal nuclear reactors – which is why most countries
who have been willing to take the risk of having nuclear power programs have abandoned their fast
breeder programs. And if they are ever constructed, electricity from these is going to be very
expensive – at least 80 percent higher than from heavy water reactors – mostly because of the high
fuel cycle costs associated with reprocessing and the fabrication of plutonium-containing fuel. dlxv
Therefore, this failure is actually a blessing in disguise!
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