LETTER FROM EUROPE

The announcement did not come as a surprise to the general conference. The long-term goal of India's nuclear program has been to develop an advanced heavy-water thorium cycle.

The first stage employs the pressurized heavy-water and light water reactors, to produce plutonium. Stage two uses fast neutron reactors to burn the plutonium and breed uranium-233 from locally mined thorium. The blanket around the core will have uranium as well as thorium, so that further plutonium is produced as well.

In stage three, AHWRs burn the uranium-233 from stage two with plutonium and thorium, harnessing about two thirds of their power from the thorium.

The first AHWR is expected to start construction in 2012, although no site has yet been announced. A prototype 500 MWe (Megawatt electric) fast neutron reactor being built at Kalpakkam in southern India should be complete in 2011.

"This version can also meet the requirement of medium sized reactors in countries with small grids while meeting the requirements of next generation systems," AEC's head Dr. Kakodkar said indicating that India was ready for export of such reactors in the near future.

"While we strongly advocate recycle option, AHWR-LEU would also compete very favourably even in once through mode of fuel cycle (where spent fuel is stored without reprocessing)," he said adding that the Department of Atomic energy has circulated a brochure of AHWR-LEU at the Vienna conference for the benefit of potential customers.

The LEU variant is suitable for export because it does away with the plutonium, replacing it with uranium enriched to 19.75% uranium-235.

The prospect of exporting power reactors is significant in view of the fact that India was effectively isolated from international nuclear trade from 1992 until early this year when a U.S.-led initiative resulted in special arrangements for India under the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), based on an India-specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA.

Overseas firms can now do business with India, which is keen to import uranium and large power reactors. In turn, India looks forward to offering its goods and services to the wider world.

Producing 300 MWe (Megawatt electric; electric output of a power plant in megawatt), the unit is less than one-third the capacity of a typical large reactor. "It is designed to operate for up to 100 years and has a 'next generation' level of safety that grants operators three days' grace in the event of a serious incident and requires no emergency planning beyond the site boundary under any circumstances," the World Nuclear News (WNN) says.

The design is intended for overseas sales, and the AEC says that "the reactor is manageable with modest industrial infrastructure within the reach of developing countries".

The new fuel mix, AEC says, produces less plutonium than mainstream light-water reactors and what it does produce contains three times the proportion of plutonium-238, lending it proliferation resistance. Furthermore, it leaves only half the amount of long-lived radioactive waste per unit of energy compared to mainstream light-water reactors.

Apart from introducing India as a potential new major player in reactor sales -- especially to new markets – Dr. Kakodkar's announcement reaffirms India's commitment to proceeding with the thorium fuel cycle using the original AHWR as the final stage, says the London-based WNN.

India has a flourishing and largely indigenous nuclear power program and expects to have 20,000 MWe nuclear capacity on line by 2020 and 63,000 MWe by 2032. It aims to supply 25% of electricity from nuclear power by 2050.

The country has vision of becoming a world leader in nuclear technology due to its expertise in fast reactors and thorium fuel cycle.

Nuclear power for civil use is well established in India. Its civil nuclear strategy has been directed towards complete independence in the nuclear fuel cycle, necessary because it is excluded from the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) because of acquiring nuclear weapons capability after 1970.

The five countries (Britain, France, USA, Russia and China) doing so before 1970 were accorded the status of Nuclear Weapons States under the NPT.

As a result, India's nuclear power program has proceeded largely without fuel or technological assistance from other countries. Its power reactors to the mid-1990s had some of the world's lowest capacity factors, reflecting the technical difficulties of the country's isolation, but rose impressively from 60% in 1995 to 85% in 2001-02.

India's nuclear energy self-sufficiency extended from uranium exploration and mining through fuel fabrication, heavy water production, reactor design and construction, to reprocessing and waste management. It has a small fast breeder reactor and is building a much larger one. It is also developing technology to utilise its abundant resources of thorium as a nuclear fuel.

The Atomic Energy Establishment was set up at Trombay, near Mumbai, in 1957 and renamed as Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) ten years later. Plans for building the first Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) were finalised in 1964, and the prototype Rawatbhata-1, which had Canada's Douglas Point reactor as a reference unit, was built as a collaborative venture between Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL) and NPCIL. It started up in 1972 and was duplicated Subsequent indigenous PHWR development has been based on these units.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) is responsible for design, construction, commissioning and operation of thermal nuclear power plants. It has 15 small and two mid-sized nuclear power reactors in commercial operation, six under construction -- including two large ones and a fast breeder reactor, and more planned.