India creates a revolution in nuclear power
India is going to build an experimental nuclear power plant, which will be able to work without uranium.
The main fuel to be used for energy will be thorium.
A revolutionary nuclear power plant will be built in India by 2020.
Instead of traditional uranium fuel, the researchers intend to use thorium.
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai is going to place an experimental facility next to existing nuclear power plant, says i-mash.ru.
Reduced reactor of new generation has already been tested in BARC.
Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is a vertical reactor of 300 MW, where boiling light water is a coolant, and heavy water – a moderator.
AHWR has several passive safety systems.
Its only major drawback is that it requires “fuse” for the start of the reaction.
In the pilot version, this task is done by plutonium, experts plan to replace it with low-enriched uranium later, according to cnews.ru.
Thorium has long been considered a promising nuclear fuel.
Back in the 50s of last century, Americans wanted to make it the primary fuel for nuclear power plant, though they chose uranium for military purposes.
With thorium reactors it will be impossible to produce nuclear weapons.
In addition, thorium reserves are incomparably greater than uranium ones, there is no emission in the form of large amounts of carbon dioxide when using thorium, and the waste of such reactors is radioactive for hundreds of years, not thousands, like uranium ones.
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