The wait is over. Design of the world's first mainly thorium-based nuclear reactor is ready.
Thorium is an element that is three times more abundant globally than uranium. India's reserves of thorium constitute 25 per cent of the world's total reserves.
- The design and prototype of the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is the latest Indian design for a next-generation nuclear reactor that will burn thorium as its fuel for commercial power generation expected to be somewhere in 2025.
- The AHWR is a vertical pressure tube type reactor cooled by boiling light water under natural circulation by a mix of uranium-233 and plutonium, which will be converted from thorium and uranium-238 respectively.
- The unique feature of this design is a large tank of water on top of a primary containment of vessel called gravity-driven water pool (GDWP).
- This reservoir is designed to perform several passive safety functions even without any operator action for nearly 110 days with ...
- Core heat removal through natural circulation;
- direct injection of emergency core coolant system (ECCS) water in fuel;
- Availability of a large inventory of borated water in overhead gravity-driven water pool (GDWP) to facilitate sustenance of core decay heat removal.
- The emergency core cooling system (ECCS) injection and containment cooling can act (SCRAM) without invoking any active systems or operator action.
- The reactor also incorporates advanced technologies together with several proven positive features of Indian pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs).
- These features include pressure tube type design, low pressure moderator, on-power refueling, diverse fast acting shut-down systems, and availability of a large low temperature heat sink around the reactor core.
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