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    Thorium

    Brook
    Brook


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    Post  Brook Wed Dec 14, 2011 6:57 am

    Brook
    Brook


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    Post  Brook Thu Dec 15, 2011 8:36 am

    India's Kakrapar-1 reactor is the world's first reactor which uses thorium

    by oyeharamde December 31, 2009



    The Nuclear power station Kakrapar (also Kakrapar Atomic power station or CAPE) is a nuclear power station in India, it lies in the proximity of the city Surat in the Federal State Gujarat.


    It consists of two 220 MW pressurized water reactors with heavy water as moderator (PHWR). KAPS-1 went critical on 3 September 1992 and began commercial electricity production a few months later on 6 May 1993. KAPS-2 went critical on 8 January 1995 and began commercial production in September 1995. In January 2003 the CANDU Owners Group (COG) distinguished KAPS-1 as the worldwide best PHWR of its class. The construction costs originally were estimated to be 3.8252 billion Rupees, the plant was finally finished at a price of 13.35 billion Rupees.

    India's Kakrapar-1 reactor is the world's first reactor which uses thorium rather than depleted uranium to achieve power flattening across the reactor core.

    India, which has about 25% of the world's thorium reserves, is developing a 300 MW prototype of a thorium-based Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR). The prototype is expected to be fully operational by 2011, following which five more reactors will be constructed.

    Considered to be a global leader in thorium-based fuel, India's new thorium reactor is a fast-breeder reactor and uses a plutonium core rather than an accelerator to produce neutrons. As accelerator-based systems can operate at sub-criticality they could be developed too, but that would require more research. India currently envisages meeting 30% of its electricity demand through thorium-based reactors by 2050.


    Australia and India have particularly large reserves of thorium. India and Australia are believed to possess about 300,000 metric tonnes each; i.e. each country possessing 25% of the world's thorium reserves. However, in the OECD reports, estimates of Australian's Reasonably Assured Reserves (RAR) of Thorium indicate only 19,000 metric tonnes and not 300,000 tonnes as indicated by USGS. The two sources vary wildly for countries such as Brazil, Turkey, and Australia. However, both reports appear to show some consistency with respect to India's thorium reserve figures, with 290,000 metric tonnes (USGS) and 319,000 metric tonnes (OECD/IAEA). Furthermore the IAEA report mentions that India possesses two thirds (67%) of global reserves of monazite, the primary thorium ore. The IAEA also states that recent reports have upgraded India's thorium deposits up from approximately 300,000 metric tonnes to 650,000 metric tonnes. Therefore, the IAEA and OECD appear to conclude that Brazil and India may actually possess the lion's share of world's thorium deposits.


    According to Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar, power potential from thorium reactors is very large and the availability of Accelerator Driven System (ADS) can enable early introduction of thorium on a large scale.


    Indigenous design of Thorium based reactors is complete. India is again proud to proclaim that Indian nuclear scientists are ready to create alternative nuclear energy for India based on abundance of Thorium available in India.

    India unveiled before the international community its revolutionary design of 'A Thorium Breeder Reactor' that can produce 600 MW of electricity for two years 'with no refuelling and practically no control manoeuvres.'

    Designed by scientists of the Mumbai-based Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, the ATBR is claimed to be far more economical and safer than any power reactor in the world.

    Most significantly for India, ATBR does not require natural or enriched uranium which the country is finding difficult to import. It uses thorium -- which India has in plenty -- and only requires plutonium as 'seed' to ignite the reactor core initially.

    Eventually, the ATBR can run entirely with thorium and fissile uranium-233 bred inside the reactor (or obtained externally by converting fertile thorium into fissile Uranium-233 by neutron bombardment).

    BARC scientists V Jagannathan and Usha Pal revealed the ATBR design in their paper presented at the week-long 'international conference on emerging nuclear energy systems' in Brussels. The design has been in the making for over seven years.

    According to the scientists, the ATBR while annually consuming 880 kg of plutonium for energy production from 'seed' rods, converts 1,100 kg of thorium into fissionable uranium-233. This diffrential gain in fissile formation makes ATBR a kind of thorium breeder.

    The uniqueness of the ATBR design is that there is almost a perfect 'balance' between fissile depletion and production that allows in-bred U-233 to take part in energy generation thereby extending the core life to two years.

    This does not happen in the present day power reactors because fissile depletion takes place much faster than production of new fissile ones.

    BARC scientists say that "the ATBR with plutonium feed can be regarded as plutonium incinerator and it produces the intrinsically proliferation resistant U-233 for sustenance of the future reactor programme."

    They say that long fuel cycle length of two years with no external absorber management or control manoeuvres "does not exist in any operating reactor."

    The ATBR annually requires 2.2 tonnes of plutonium as 'seed'. Althouth India has facilities to recover plutonium by reprocessing spent fuel, it requires plutonium for its Fast Breeder Reactor programme as well. Nuclear analysts say that it may be possible for India to obtain plutonium from friendly countries wanting to dismantle their weapons or dispose of their stockpiled plutonium.
    http://www.chowk.com/oyeharamde/iLo...-the-world-s-first-reactor-which-uses-thorium


    Last edited by Brook on Thu Dec 15, 2011 8:39 am; edited 2 times in total
    Brook
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    Post  Brook Thu Dec 15, 2011 8:37 am

    http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/cn...s-eye-post-japanese-nuke-disaster_530566.html


    India's Thorium cycle catches world's eye post Japanese nuke disaster
    CNBC TV18 ^

    Posted on Sunday, March 20, 2011 10:38:49 AM by Sancho1984

    India's development of thorium for nuclear power generation caught world interest in the light of the blasts at Japan's nuclear power stations. CNBC-TV18’s Sanjay Suri and Anup Gomen report.
    India is considered as the world leader in thorium. The Kakrapar-1 reactor located near Surat in Gujarat is the world's first reactor which uses thorium than depleted uranium for vital power generation. Compated to uranium, thorium has less fissile. The nuclear physicists are now looking at thorium as the safer model.
    Ian Hore-Lacy from World Nuclear Association said, "India is the only country in the world that develops thorium fuel cycle. The expertise in India is world class and it is applied very rigorously to the safety of nuclear plants in India."
    India has about 25% of the world's thorium reserves and is keen to tap thorium for the growing needs of its population," Hore-Lacy added.
    Paddy Regan, Professor of Nuclear Physics from University of Surrey said, “India has a population of a billion people and has massive reserves of thorium. India's nuclear programme, based on the thorium cycle, is slightly different. Indian model thorium based reactors seem to be a very sensible way to go."
    Pioneering Indian technology using thorium rather than uranium generated new interest around the world. Thorium is considered less efficient but certainly is much safer. In the light of what has happened in Japan, critics are less inclined to dismiss
    bobhardee
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    Post  bobhardee Fri May 16, 2014 8:28 pm

    Jenetta
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    Post  Jenetta Fri May 16, 2014 11:30 pm



    Queen Elizabeth won't like that...she has vast amount of wealth invested in depleted uranium reserves around the globe especially in Canada and Africa. Then who gives a hoot if she and her offspring are a tad less short of funds.

     cat 
    bobhardee
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    Post  bobhardee Mon May 19, 2014 7:58 pm

    bobhardee
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    Post  bobhardee Fri May 23, 2014 6:35 pm

    bobhardee
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    Post  bobhardee Thu Jun 12, 2014 8:04 am

    June 12, 2014

    Thorium nuclear reactor trial begins, could provide cleaner, safer, almost-waste-free energy
    By Sebastian Anthony on July 1, 2013 at 2:32 pm
    83 Comments


    Thorium: Thor. Get it?


    .
    At a test site in Norway, Thor Energy has successfully created a thorium nuclear reactor — but not in the sense that most people think of when they hear the word thorium. The Norwegians haven’t solved the energy crisis and global warming in one fell swoop — they haven’t created a cold fusion thorium reactor. What they have done, though, which is still very cool, is use thorium instead of uranium in a conventional nuclear reactor. In one fell swoop, thorium fuel, which is safer, less messy to clean up, and not prone to nuclear weapons proliferation, could quench the complaints of nuclear power critics everywhere.

    In a conventional nuclear reactor, enriched uranium fuel is converted into plutonium and small amounts of other transuranic compounds. There are ways to recycle plutonium, but for many countries, such as the USA, it is simply a waste product of nuclear power — a waste product that will be dangerously radioactive for thousands of years. While the safety of nuclear power plants is hotly contested, no one is arguing the nastiness of plutonium. Any technological development that could reduce the production of plutonium, or consume our massive stocks of plutonium waste, would be a huge boon for the Earth’s (and humanity’s) continued well-being. (See: Nuclear power is our only hope, or, the greatest environmentalist hypocrisy of all time.)

    Enter thorium. Natural thorium, which is fairly cheap and abundant (more so than uranium), doesn’t contain enough fissile material (thorium-231) to sustain a nuclear chain reaction. By mixing thorium oxide with 10% plutonium oxide, however, criticality is achieved. This fuel, which is called thorium-MOX (mixed-oxide), can then be formed into rods and used in conventional nuclear reactors. Not only does this mean that we can do away with uranium, which is expensive to enrich, dangerous, and leads to nuclear proliferation, but it also means that we finally have an easy way of recycling plutonium. Furthermore, the thorium-MOX fuel cycle produces no new plutonium; it actually reduces the world’s stock of plutonium. Oh, thorium-MOX makes for safer nuclear reactors, too, due to a higher melting point and thermal conductivity.

    Thor Energy's thorium reactor in Halden, Norway.
    Thor Energy’s thorium reactor in Halden, Norway. The rod in the middle of the picture contains thorium-MOX pellets, and is being inserted into the reactor (which is underground).

    Thorium-MOX, in short, is about as exciting as it gets in the nuclear power industry. Before it can be used, though, Thor Energy needs to make sure that the thorium fuel cycle is fully understood. To do this, the company has built a small test reactor in the Norwegian town of Halden, where rods of thorium-MOX provide steam to a nearby paper mill. This reactor will run for five years, after which the fuel will be analyzed to see if it’s ready for commercial reactors. (See: 500MW from half a gram of hydrogen: The hunt for fusion power heats up.)

    The first batch of thorium-MOX pellets, which are inside the rods, was made in Germany; the next batch of pelles will be made in Norway; and the final, hopefully commercial-grade pellets will be made by the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory. Westinghouse Electric Company, one of the world’s largest producers of nuclear reactors, is one of Thor Energy’s commercial backers.

    (And yes, just in case you were wondering, the element thorium really is named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. And yes, Norse mythology originated from Norway, where Thor Energy is based. Coincidence, I think not!)

    Now read: Cold fusion reactor independently verified, has 10,000 times the energy density of gas
    bobhardee
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    Post  bobhardee Tue Jul 08, 2014 6:06 pm

    bobhardee
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    Post  bobhardee Thu Jan 29, 2015 7:56 am


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