Abstract
Nuclear energy as a sustainable resource in India has been very clearly formulated in the three stage nuclear programme. The role of thorium as a potential fuel in the third stage of this programme has also been elucidated. With this aim there have been pioneering research efforts in all aspects of the thorium fuel cycle. Thorium being fertile and not accompanied by the fissile species requires the use of a fissile topping. There have been several studies in India on the use of thorium in different reactor systems from thermal to intermediate and fast spectrum, molten salt reactors, high temperature reactors, compact nuclear power packs and even Subcritical systems. In this paper, we present some of the research studies on use of thorium in thermal reactor systems. We give an overview of the neutronic properties of thorium and the bred fissile material and then proceed to show the performance potential in different reactor systems. We also present the innovative Indian reactor designs which utilize thorium, namely the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) and the Indian High Temperature Reactors.
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Notes
Toxicity potential is defined as the absorbed dose in sievert / Te HM equivalent to the biological effect of radioactivity.
Pu composition : 238Pu/239Pu/240Pu/241Pu/242Pu ::: 3.5 / 51.87 / 23.81 / 12.91 /7.91.
Fractional departure from criticality is defined as reactivity.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to all the colleagues of Reactor Physics Design Division, who have p rovided valuable inputs for preparing this paper. We express our sincere thanks to Dr. Kamala Balakrishnan, Ex-BARC, for making her thesis on thorium utilization in thermal reactors available. Our thanks are due to our retired colleagues, Dr. S Ganesan, Dr. V Jagannathan, Shri. K Anantharaman for their valuable suggestions on thorium fuel cycle. We also wish to thank Shri. KK Rasheed, another ex-colleague for his inputs on PURNIMA and KAMINI reactors. We thank Dr. V Gopalakrishanan and Shri. G Pandikumar for the help on the basic nuclear data for the thorium fuel cycle.
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KANNAN, U., KRISHNANI, P.D. Energy from thorium—An Indian perspective. Sadhana 38, 817–837 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-013-0165-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-013-0165-x