What is the significance of Thorium and why it is important to the country? Engineers of the Indira Gandhi Centre For Atomic Research (IGCAR) , Kalpakkam, 60 km from Chennai, are busy building a Thorium based 500 MW Fast Breeder Reactor. The commissioning of this reactor, expected in 2013, is going to be a game changer for India’s energy requirements.

The Fast Breeder Reactor uses a mixture of Plutonium and Uranium as fuel. A blanket of Thorium will be used inside the reactor to facilitate the fission of Plutonium and Uranium. When Uranium gets bombarded inside the reactor with neutrons, it gets converted into Uranium 233 (U-233) which is a fissile material. The Thorium blanket too transforms itself into Uranium 233 and Plutonium 239, again fissile materials. The Uranium and Plutonium formed inside the fast breeder reactor could be unloaded and used as fuel in another reactor. “We have designed a reactor which breeds more and more fuel that what it consumes,” said SC Chetal, director, IGCAR and the master brain who designed the 500 MW Fast Breeder Reactor.

“It is similar to you filling your car with 20 litres of petrol and start a drive to Chandigarh from Delhi. As you keep on driving, more and more petrol will be generated inside the tank and you need not bother about filling it again,” Chetal explained it in a layman’s language.

With the commissioning of the FBR at Kalpakkam, India needs to build a series of FBRs across the country so that the fuel generated in this reactor could be used effectively. That is why they have been termed breeding reactors. “Fuel is bred in these reactors and used in other FBRs,” said Dr Baldev Raj, former IGCAR director who has been designated as distinguished scientist by the union government. Above all, Thorium is rated as a clean fuel because of its less toxicity.

The FBR at Kalpakkam would require two tonnes of fuel which will last for two years. When the reactor crew refuel the reactor, they also remove used fuel from the reactor vessel which is sent to other reactors. “The objective is to bring down the coat of power produced in this kind of reactors to Rs 2 per unit. Once the Fast Breeder Reactors are in place, we can set up many desalination plants to take care of our water shortage,” said a senior reactor engineer.

With the Fast Breeder Reactors in place, India need not go to countries like USA, France and Russia with begging bowl for fuel to run its existing 17 reactors which are all dependent on imported Uranium. The country has no worthwhile resources of Uranium. The Uranium mined form Jharkhand, Chattisgargh and Andhra Pradesh contains only 0.7 per cent of the fuel material and it’s separation is a cumbersome and uneconomical process.

It was the severe shortage of Uranium which made India sign the infamous Indo-US civil nuclear deal with which Manmohan Singh forfeited India’s right to test any nuclear device in the future. The moment India undertakes a peaceful nuclear explosion like the one which was ordered by the Vajpayee government in May 1998 at Pokhran desert in Rajasthan, the US and other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group will pull the rug from India’s feet and all nuclear reactors in the country will come to a grinding halt.

A series of Thorium based Fast Breeder Reactor would save the country from such an embarrassment. In addition to this, a group of scientists in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Trombay are busy developing a reactor which uses Thorium as fuel. Once commissioned, this Thorium based reactor would catapult India as the undisputed leader of the world in the field of nuclear reactors.

There is still more which does not meet the eyes. The Plutonium which is bred in FBRs and Thorium reactors could be used for defence purposes which will bestow India with strategic advantage over the comity of nations.

The coast along Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Naduand Kerala has the largest deposit of Thorium-rich Monazite. By exporting this Monazite , the Tirunelveli based company is squandering away the country’s precious natural resources, more precious than the gold, diamond and platinum mines in the world put together, according to Dr Rajamanickam.

Immediately after the signing of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal in 2007, Government of India amended the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act by a government order , probably under pressure from a foreign country, to facilitate the export of the mineral-rich sand. Till then private companies were not allowed mining of monazite because of the presence of Thorium. But there is no system in place to prevent the export of the Thorium-rich sand.

By 2005 itself France and USA had accorded India the status of Global Leader in Fast Breeder Reactors. This was because scientists like Chetal and Baldev Raj had perfected the FBR technology which was discarded by both following frequent failures.