India's Three Stage Nuclear Power Programme
India's three-stage nuclear power programme was formulated by Dr. Homi Bhabha in the 1950s to secure the country’s long term energy independence, through the use of uranium and thorium reserves found in the monazite sands of coastal regions of South India. The ultimate focus of the programme is on enabling the thorium reserves of India to be utilized in meeting the country's energy requirements. Thorium is particularly attractive for India, as it has only around 1–2% of the global uranium reserves, but one of the largest shares of global thorium reserves at about 30% of the total world thorium reserves.
The country published about twice the number of papers on thorium as its nearest competitors, during each of the years from 2002 to 2006. The Indian nuclear establishment estimates that the country could produce 500 GWe for at least four centuries using just the country’s economically extractable thorium reserves.
As of 2012, the first stage consisting of the pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR) is near completion of its planned goals, the second stage consisting of fast breeder reactors (FBR) is poised to go into operation within one year, and the third stage consisting of advanced heavy water reactors (AHWR), as one among several technology options, is slated to begin construction so that its commissioning can be done by 2020. The recent Indo-US Nuclear Deal and the NSG waiver, which ended more than three decades of international isolation of the Indian civil nuclear programme, have created many hitherto unexplored alternatives for the success of the three-stage nuclear power programme.
Read more about India's Three Stage Nuclear Power Programme: Origin and Rationale, Fuel Reserves and Research Capability, Stage I – Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor, Stage II – Fast Breeder Reactor, Stage III – Thorium Based Reactors, Linkages With The Indo-US Nuclear Deal, Indian Nuclear Energy Forecasts, Thorium Energy Forecasts, See Also, Footnotes
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