Thorium nuclear reactors on fast-track for India’s energy security and formation of Indian Ocean Community
अकरणे प्रत्यवय जनकं करणेभ्युदयम् akaraṇe pratyavaya janakam, karaṇe'bhyudayam-- कपिल वैशेषिकसूत्र Trans. Non-performance of certain actions brings us ills, while some actions bring us happiness
Do not reveal what you have thought upon doing, but by wise council keep it secret being determined to carry it into execution -- CHANAKYA NITI-SASTRA
S. Kalyanaraman, Ph.D. Sarasvati Research Centre. Former Sr. Exec., Asian Development Bank
September 9, 2013 Vinayaka Chaturthi
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Acronyms and abbreviations
1. India’s energy needs
2. India’s nuclear energy: Prospects and challenges
3. Rare earths uranium enrichment plant at Rattehalli in Mysore
4. Problems connected with Fast Breeder Reactors
5. Three-stage thorium cycle programme
6. Thorium as nuclear fuel in reactors
7. Illegal notification by Govt. of India on Atomic Minerals without amending the Act of Parliament
8. Immediate corrective steps needed to stem the illegal mining of Atomic Minerals
Annex1 A Citizens’ Forum details the modus operandi of illegal mining
Annex 2 The Great Thorium Robbery – Special article in The Statesman by Sam Rajappa
Acronyms and abbreviations
bwrs boiling water reactors
dAe Department of Atomic Energy
eAr estimated additional resources
fbTr fast breeder test reactor
fmCT fissile material cutoff treaty
gwe gigawatt (electric)
mwd/mTU megawatt days per metric ton of uranium
mTHm/yr metric tons of heavy metal per year
mTU metric tons of natural uranium
mTPd metric tons per day
mwe megawatt (electric)
mwt megawatt (thermal)
PHwrs pressurized heavy water reactors
Pfbr prototype fast breeder reactor
rAr reasonably assured resources
rgPu reactor-grade plutonium
Sr speculative resources
Executive Summary
This booklet provides an overview on nuclear options for India to build up a nuclear arsenal while ensuring the nation’s energy security and to maximize the use of indigenous resources to put the country’s Nuclear Programme on a fast-track. The 1998 Pokharan blast awakened the world to India’s technological potential as a responsible nuclear power. Similar re-assertion of India’s global strategic role as an economic power can be achieved by declaring an indigenous thorium-base nuclear energy programme founded on the three-stage thorium fuel cycle and taking advantage of the technological developments and opportunities to use thorium as a source of nuclear energy, exploring options such as Molten Salt Reactors. This leads to the imperative of India’s responsibility as a nuclear power to protect and safeguard the thorium reserves of the country which exceed over 33% of the world total, making India a pre-eminent leader in thorium-based nuclear technology. This has to be realized by enunciating a clear, unambiguous nuclear doctrine of building up the nation’s nuclear arsenal utilizing the nation’s indigenous uranium resources and in tune with comparable developments and military-posturing of other Asian powers. As a first step in protecting and preserving the nation’s thorium reserves, India should be a catalytic agent for constitution of an Indian Ocean Community (IOC) which will be fully supported by India’s nuclear, space and other technologies and founded the tenets of dharma-dhamma in the comity of nations to make IOC a counterpoise to the European Community. This solemn declaration of Rāṣṭram as a united Indian Ocean Nations respecting the sovereignty, integrity and development imperative of each of the 59 nations will put India on a path of abhyudayam, and take her to the status she had at the turn of the first millennium accounting for nearly 50% of the world GDP and provide opportunities for socio-economic multipliers for the nations of the IOC. 1. India’s energy needs Energy availability is a key challenge to India’s growth to increase the share of manufacturing in the nation’s GDP.
Our long-term objective is energy security.
We currently have an installed peak capacity of 160,000 MW including captive generation. This means a shortfall of 11.7 percent. The Integrated Energy Policy (IEP) Report of the Expert Committee of the Government of India, dated 9th August 2006 shows that energy needs per capita are likely to increase at a rate of 6-7 per cent per annum for the next 25 years. By 2031-32, we need an installed capacity of 800,000 MW (including 63,000 MW of nuclear power, 150,000 MW of hydel power).
“The long run marginal cost of producing 1 business unit (1 KWH) of energy through nuclear sources was estimated at about Re 1.00 for nuclear energy and about Re. 0.90 for thermal energy, (at 1984 prices) in a paper by Prof Y K Alagh (1997). The comparison becomes favourable for nuclear power when the distance to which coal has to be transported exceeds a 1,000 Km, due to the high transportation cost of coal.” (Ritwick Priya, Indo-US nuclear deal: A debate, Vikalpa, Vol. 32, No. 4, October-December 2007, IIM, Ahmedabad, p.107).
About 90% of oil consumption is based on imports.
We have large reserves of coal but clean coal technology is eluding us, making us dependent on coal imports – mostly from Australia -- for our thermal power plants. We have also management problems of bringing the coal from the ground to the surface. BHEL and L&T have developed technological competence to achieve 90 to 95% capacity even given the quality of coal – thanks to efficient boiler and power systems designs.
Green House Gas Emissions lead to crop losses, sea-level rise, extreme weather events. Nuclear power is an environmentally benign energy option and is a step towards decarburizing the power sector. Compared to 35-50 million tons of coal needed, a 10,000MWe nuclear power capacity needs only about 300 – 350 tons of fuel per annum.
The coal imports are expected to grow from 15 to 45 % in the coming years. India’s mineable coal reserves are estimated to last another 45 years and known oil reserves are likely to last 23 years of production and 7 years of consumption.
We have the potential for augmenting hydroelectric power generation which will be enhanced once the interlinking of rivers and creation of National Water Grid become a reality, following the Supreme Court’s endorsement of the project. Other options for solar or wind energy should also be pursued simultaneously with increased R&D efforts, together with reducing dependence on imported fuels by exploring hyrdrogen-fuel cell for automobiles. There is no dearth of water in India, thanks to the great water reservoir, the Himalayas. What we need is an effective system through a Grid to match supply and demand to ensure potable tap water reaches every one of the households in 6.5 lakh villages and assured irrigation is made available to an additional 9 crore acres of land which will be created with interlinking for upto three crops per year. Thousands of crores of property damage occurs dur to floods and the flood waters can make this National Water Grid possible rendering every river south of Vindhyas a jeevanadi and every tank filled with water. We have to tap these water resources and add an additional 80 percent tof our hydroelectric power potential. The cost of one Megawatt of hydroelectricity would be Rs. 3 crore.
We should invest more in exploring for gas in Krishna-Kaveri basins and in the northeast and augment energy using our own resources.
We have to switch to sustainable renewable sources of energy.
- India’s nuclear energy: Prospects and challenges
25 http://www.npcil.nic.in/PlantsInOperation.asp, “Nuclear Power Plants in Operation,” Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited. 26 http://www.npcil.nic.in/projectconststatus.asp, “Status of Projects Under Construction,” Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited
India’s thermonuclear designs emphasize plutonium-based devices supplemented as necessary by deuterium, tritium, and lithium deuteride. (Tellis, India’s Emerging Nuclear Posture, 478–481, 487–490). [Ashley J. Tellis has been a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was on assignment to the U.S. Department of State as Senior Adviser to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, during which time he was intimately involved in negotiating the civilian nuclear agreement with India.]These statistics make it necessary to use nuclear energy for long-term energy security. IUn France, nuclear power accounts for 75 percent of the installed capacity (as against ony 3% in India).
With prudent use of imported, safeguarded reactors, nuclear power could contribute 25% of India’s total electrical power by 2052. However, with the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, the indigenous nuclear technology programme has gone into a limbo.
While India is self-sufficient in thorium, possessing 33% of the world's known and economically viable thorium. ("Information and Issue Briefs – Thorium". World Nuclear Association.) India possesses a meager 1% of the similarly calculated global uranium reserves ("UIC Nuclear Issues Briefing Paper No. 75 – Supply of Uranium". Uranium Information Center. Archived from the original on April 27, 2006)Our uranium reserves are very limited, adequate only 100 to 10,000 MW of first generation of uranium fuel reactors. This is the limiting value for our Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors.These reactors will produce enough plutonium which can go through the stages of reaching the fast breeder reactor stage which will convert thorium to Uranium 233. The most authoritative foreign sources, namely the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency–International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) “red book,” classifies India’s natural uranium holdings as consisting of 54,636 tons of “reasonably assured resources” (RAR); 25,245 tons in estimated additional resources (EAR-Category I [in situ resources]); 15,488 tons in undiscovered conventional resources (EAR-Category II); and, finally, 17,000 tons in speculative resources (SR), for a grand total of 112,369 tons of uranium reserves without any assigned cost ranges. (OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Uranium 2003: Resources, Production and Demand (Paris: OECD/IAEA, 2004), 146-147.)
At the end of 2002, world uranium production (36 042 tonnes) provided about 54% of world reactor requirements (66 815 tonnes), with the remainder being met by secondary sources, including civilian and military stockpiles, uranium reprocessing and re-enrichment of depleted uranium. However, by 2025, secondary sources will decline in importance and provide only about 4–6% of requirements, depending upon the demand projections used. At that juncture, introduction of thorium fuel cycle will play a complementary role and ensure easy availability of basic materials for nuclear fission energy. (IAEA, 2005, p.7)
“Given that India is estimated to possess reserves of about 80,000–112,369 tons of uranium, India has more than enough fissile material to supply its nuclear weapons program, even if it restricted Plutonium production to only 8 of the country's 17 current reactors, and then further restricted Plutonium production to only 1/4 of the fuel core of these reactors.[35] According to the calculations of one of the key advisers to the US Nuclear deal negotiating team, Ashley Tellis: Operating India’s eight unsafeguarded PHWRs in such a [conservative] regime would bequeath New Delhi with some 12,135–13,370 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium, which is sufficient to produce between 2,023–2,228 nuclear weapons over and above those already existing in the Indian arsenal. Although no Indian analyst, let alone a policy maker, has ever advocated any nuclear inventory that even remotely approximates such numbers, this heuristic exercise confirms that New Delhi has the capability to produce a gigantic nuclear arsenal while subsisting well within the lowest estimates of its known uranium reserves.” (Tellis, Ashley. "Atoms for War? U.S.-Indian Civilian Nuclear Cooperation and India's Nuclear Arsenal" , p. 31-36.) PHWRs use natural uranium oxide (UO2) as fuel and heavy watervi (D2O) as both moderator and coolant. The heavy water rapidly thermalizes (slows) fission neutrons with minimal neutron absorption; the resulting high neutron economy not only allows the use of natural uranium fuel but also provides more “surplus” neutrons to breed plutonium, important for the startup of the second stage fast breeder reactors.
“If all the eight PHWRs that India has currently kept outside of safeguards were thus used to produce weapons-grade plutonium exclusively, then, depending on the capacity factors involved and the burnup levels, they could require anywhere from 2,206 MTU to 3,590 MTU annually for many years to come” (ibid., p. 25). This would, then increase Indian requirement for natural uranium which will increase to 56,098 – 90,854 MTU. The scenario is definitely a heuristic possibility, if electricity production from the PHWRs is reduced by about 85 percent, reducing the average discharge burnup from about 6,700 MWD/MTU to about 1000 WMD/MTU. A safeguard can be envisaged for using the unsafeguarded reactors with one-fourth of the reactor full core devoted to the production of weapons-grade plutonium even though the action may result in decline in electricity production. An alternative is to go for more ‘Dhruva-II’ research reactor types.
The shape of the 220 MWe PHWR’s core has 306 pressure tubs arranged in a roughly circular array with a central 16X14 rectangle, with rows of 10 and 5 tubes on the left and right sides, rows of 12 and 10 tubes on the bottom edge, and rows of 14, 10, and 6 tubes on the top edge away from the centre. Thus, there are 82 (that is, 30+22+30) tubes on the edge of the core – roughly one-fourth of the total – that could be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium. This happens in a region where the neutron flux and power density is lowest. (ibid., p.30).
It is clear that India can develop a nuclear arsenal through her native resources alone, generating between 16,180 and 18,306 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium, sufficient to add some 2,697–3,051 nuclear weapons to the inventory.
“The primary weapons-grade plutonium producing facilities in the Indian nuclear estate would thus require a total of some 938–1088 MTU to sustain New Delhi’s strategic program during their operational lives. During this period, these facilities would be able to produce some 840–976 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium that, assuming 6 kilograms for each simple fission device, results in an aggregate inventory of some 200–250 weapons if India’s current stockpile is included. An arsenal of this size, which many in India believe would suffice for its deterrence requirements, can therefore be produced through its dedicated research reactors alone using a tiny fraction—about one-fiftieth—of India’s reasonably assured reserves of uranium.” (ibid., p. 22).
“…inventory of natural uranium required to sustain the PHWRs associated with both the current power program and the weapons program over the entire notional lifetime of the reactors involved—some 14,640–14,790 MTU—is well within even the most conservative valuations of India’s reasonably assured reserves of some 54,636 tons of uranium.” (ibid., p.23).
Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan or Souh Africa have more assured uranium reserves.
Uranium Corporation of India (UCIL) is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), under the Department of Atomic Energy for uranium mining and uranium processing. The corporation was founded in 1967 and is responsible for the mining and milling of uranium ore in India. Singhbhum Shear zone which is about 160 km in length and 1 to 10 km in width in the East & West Singhbhum Districts of Jharkhand.
Tummalapalle Uranium Project. Andhra Pradesh has been planned for development. All clearances including approval of Govt. of India have been obtained. Construction activities for an underground mine upto a depth of 300m and a processing plant based on alkali leaching (under pressure) technology have been initiated.
Lambapur uranium project, Andhra Pradesh - Substantial uranium reserves have been identified at Lambapur-Peddagattu region in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh and UCIL is in the process of obtaining clearances for construction of three underground and one openpit mines in the area and a processing plant at Seripally, 52 k away from the mine site.
Mohuldih uranium deposit Mine in Gamharia block of Seraikella-Kharsawan district in state of Jharkhand has been developed as a modern underground mine by Uranium Corporation of India Ltd. The mine was commissioned on 17th April 2012. UCIL now operates six underground mines and one open pit mine in the state of Jharkhand in addition to an underground mine in Andhra Pradesh.
Kyelleng-Pyndengsohiong, Mawtahbah uranium project, Meghalaya -The sandstone hosted orebody at Killung and Rangam in West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya is the first of its kind to be discovered in the country. UCIL has planned to construct openpit mines at this site and a processing plant at Mawthabah. Infrastructure development and some welfare activities have already been taken up. Site activities are expected to start soon.
More than 50,000 metric tons of ore if it is to produce the approximately 30 MTU that are nominally required to refuel a 220 MWe PHWR annually, assuming that that each metric ton of ore contains about 0.6 kilograms of uranium. Jaduguda ore concentration plant processes about 2,090 metric tons per day. Operating for 300 days each year, extracting some 80 percent of the 0.06 percent uranium in the ore, the plant should produc about 301 MTU per year. (ibid., p. 44).
Thorium ore typically contains 0.30 percent uranium. As a byproduct of processing monazite, uranium can be produced.
Thorium has to be converted to Uranium 233 to become a nuclear fuel. In the final state, thorium and Uranium 233 produced by the thorium will run the reactors. This stage will mean that we will be released from the need to use plutonium and natural uranium. This thorium-based nuclear fuel cycle will ensure a self-sufficient system for the country’s energy needs.
This three-stage programme can generate upto 350,000 MW of electricity by thorium utilization.
The first stage of the programme uses Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) fuelled by natural uranium, and light water reactors, to produce plutonium. The first stage comprises of Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors fuelled by natural uranium. Natural uranium contains only 0.7% of Uranium235, which undergoes fission to release energy (200Mev/atom). The remaining 99.3% comprises Uranium238 which is not fissile however it is converted in the nuclear reactor, to fissile element Pu 239. In the fission process, among other fission products, a small quantity of Plutonium239 is formed by transmutation of Uranium238.
In the second stage, fast neutron reactors burn the plutonium to breed U-233 from thorium. The second stage, comprising of Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs) are fuelled by mixed oxide of Uranium238 and Plutonium239, recovered by reprocessing of the first stage spent fuel. In FBRs, Plutonium239 undergoes fission producing energy, and producing Plutonium239 by transmutation of Uranium238. Thus the FBRs produce energy and fuel, hence termed Breeders. FBRs produce more fuel than they consume. Over a period of time, Plutonium inventory can be built up by feeding Uranium238.
Thorium232, which constitutes world’s third largest reserves in India, is not fissile therefore needs to be converted to a fissile material, Uranium233, by transmutation in a fast breeder reactor. This is to be achieved through second stage of the program, consisting of commercial operation of Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs).
In the second stage, once sufficient inventory of Plutonium239 is built up, Thorium232 will be introduced as a blanket material to be converted to Uranium233.
In the third stage, advanced heavy water reactors (AHWRs) utilize the mix to generate two-thirds of the power from thorium itself.
This sequential three-stage program is based on a closed fuel cycle, where the spent fuel of one stage is reprocessed to produce fuel for the next stage. The closed fuel cycle thus multiplies manifold the energy potential of the fuel and greatly reduces the quantity of waste generated.
The commercial nuclear power program of the first stage (comprising of PHWRs and imported LWRs) is being implemented by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), and the second stage ( comprising of Fast Breeder Reactors) by Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI).
Homi Jehangir Bhabha summarised the rationale for the three-stage approach as follows:[14] 5000 tonnes of thorium will supply all the needs for energy of the world for a year. Indian thorium reserves can feed the world with energy for 100 years.
The total reserves of thorium in India amount to over 500,000 tons in the readily extractable form, while the known reserves of uranium are less than a tenth of this. The aim of long range atomic power programme in India must therefore be to base the nuclear power generation as soon as possible on thorium rather than uranium… The first generation of atomic power stations based on natural uranium can only be used to start off an atomic power programme… The plutonium produced by the first generation power stations can be used in a second generation of power stations designed to produce electric power and convert thorium into U-233, or depleted uranium into more plutonium with breeding gain… The second generation of power stations may be regarded as an intermediate step for the breeder power stations of the third generation all of which would produce more U-233 than they burn in the course of producing power.
In 2002, a 500 MW prototype fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam was approved. Hopefully this will take India to stage 2 in the next few years. Operation of the reactor has been inordinately delayed. The government has announced in parliament that "the PFBR is expected to begin commercial production in March 2015". It is projected to cost more than Rs. 56 billion. This is being built by Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam (Bhavini). Bhavini planning to build two more 500 MW fast reactors sometime in the future.
The successful development and operation of Kamini, the Kalpakkam Mini Reactor, is the only U-233 fuelled reactor in the world currently in operation. Constructed at the IGCAR with fuel that was bred, processed, and fabricated indigenously, this reactor achieved criticality in 1996 and began full power operation at 30 kWt the following year. In addition to its mission as a U-233 fueled test reactor, it also functions as a neutron source for radiography and activation analysis. T
Initial steps for the construction of another fast-breeder test reactor powered by metallic fuel at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) complex at Kalpakkam has begun in November 2012. "The government had initially sanctioned Rs. 25 crore for the 120 MW metallic fuel test reactor (MFTR). Around Rs. six crore is expected to be spent by the end of this fiscal on geo-technical investigations for the proposed project," an official not wanting to be named said. The proposed MFTR will be the third reactor for IGCAR which already has a 14 MW fast breeder test reactor (FBTR) and a mini Kamini (Kalpakkam mini reactor).The proposed MFTR will be the seventh reactor as a whole for the Kalpakkam nuclear complex, around 70 km from here.Two pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) of 220 MW capacity of Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) belonging to Nuclear Power Corporation India Ltd (NPCIL) are already functioning. The MFTR will be the test bed for designing a 1,000 MW fast reactor to be powered by metallic fuel, a mix of 20 per cent plutonium and 80 per cent uranium.
The extremely small, 39 MWt, Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) – which became critical in October 1985 -- that is currently on-line is used primarily for experimentation and familiarization with breeder operations as well as to test the viability of plutonium-uranium carbide as a fuel source.
The metallic fuel has better breeding ratio as compared to the mixed plutonium-uranium oxide (MOX) fuel that would power PFBR and the two 500 MW fast reactors at Bhavini.
Our supreme national interest lies in focusing on this indigenous three-stage programme started in 1958-59.
If we renegotiate the Indo-US Nuclear deal, there should be provision for using the imported fuel on this three-stage programme.
India is treated with respect as an advanced country in the nuclear field. This inherent strength of a responsible state, technologically advanced is what counted with the formulation by US of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. Our competence to play a global role in the advancement of nuclear science and technology will gain increasing recognition as we put the thorium-based reactor programme on a fast track.
India should not allow herself to be subordinate to the status of a US-client state.
This stage will ensure that we reach material and technical self-sufficiency without being dependent on imported fuels and nuclear supplies.
Gopalakrishnan, A., Former Chairman of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board notes: “Once the fast breeder reactor is constructed, we need to test it at least four or five years to understand all its nuances, make corrections, and make sure that we have a system that is completely in place. Next, it has to go to a second type of breeder and only then, we can go for thorium utilization. There is a gestation period which cannot be cut short. Even during Bhabha’s time, it was understood that from the time one starts, it would take around 20 years for the thorium power to exponentially keep rising. But that suits us.” (Indo-US nuclear deal: A debate, Vikalpa, Vol. 32, No. 4, October-December 2007, IIM, Ahmedabad, p.93)
After the 1974 nuclear explosion and May 1998 Pokharan blast, India supplies of forgings or tubes from abroad were cut off – as part of international embargoes and restrictions in nuclear trade -- and acted as a blessing in disguise to thorium and be free from foreign hold on our energy affairs. India has to take a firm, solemn vow to build thorium reactors based on our indigenous resources until the breeders’ thorium utilization occurs. According to Gopalakrishnan, our scientists have completed 40-50% of the breeder programme and should be allowed to further complete. Our nuclear programme should not be planned based on the need of foreign countries to get into the nuclear power sector of India. These imported reactors are likely to be exhorbitant in costs – apart from lack of guaranteed fuel supply for foreign reactors. The cost could be as high as Rs. 10.5 crore per Megawatt against Rs 4 crore per Megawatt for thermal energy or other coal-based systems. Our own national reactors cost about Rs 7 crores per Megawatt, but this cost is justified by the fact that we will get plutonium by shifting to thorium reactors. Allowing companies by Westinghouse should not undermine the skill development and employment of professions in BHEL and L&T.
Indo-US Nuclear deal based on Indo-US Joint Statement of July 18, 2005 is premised on the hope that 50,000 MW of power will be nuclear-resources based. IAEA Agreement on safeguards for power reactors and 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) agreeing to provide nuclear-fuel supplies are key parts of the Indo-US Nuclear deal. On February 2, 2009, India signed an India-specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA. NSG controls exports of nuclear materials, equipment and technology. On Oct 10, 2008, the 123 Agreement between India and US is finally operationalized between the two countries after the deal is signed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his counterpart Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington D C.
India is NOT a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), because it is a discriminatory treaty dividing nations into nuclear-weapon haves and havenots. India now virtually has the nuclear weapon state status with the same rights and obligations as the other nuclear weapon states. In return, India reaffirmed its moratorium on testing; it agreed to separate the Indian military and civilian nuclear facilities and place the civilian facilities under IAEA inspection and abide by the internationally accepted norms for export control and fissile material production. India retains the right to future testing of nuclear weapons without in any way limited by the Indo-US Nuclear deal – if the circumstances do require tests, despite Vajpayee’s mortatorium on testing and not coming in the way of Test Ban treaty. This sovereign right to test in national interst, cannot be taken away by any treaty or deal. India has the right to test, but the US has the right to react!
Professor Brahma Chellaney, an expert in strategic affairs and one of the authors of the Indian Nuclear Doctrine[70], explained: “While the Hyde Act’s bar on Indian testing is explicit, the one in the NSG waiver is implicit, yet unmistakable. The NSG waiver is overtly anchored in NSG Guidelines Paragraph 16, which deals with the consequence of “an explosion of a nuclear device”. The waiver’s Section 3(e) refers to this key paragraph, which allows a supplier to call for a special NSG meeting, and seek termination of cooperation, in the event of a test or any other “violation of a supplier-recipient understanding”. The recently leaked Bush administration letter to Congress has cited how this Paragraph 16 rule will effectively bind India to the Hyde Act's conditions on the pain of a U.S.-sponsored cut-off of all multilateral cooperation. India will not be able to escape from the U.S.-set conditions by turning to other suppliers.” ("Stagecraft and Statecraft: India's retarded nuclear deterrent". Chellaney.spaces.live.com.) The credibility of India’s nuclear deterrence should not be undermined by an embargo on conducting nuclear tests to calibrate the quality and effectiveness of deployable nuclear devices and merely depending upon on computer simulation data. Credible deterrence and testing are complimentary.
India should principally focus on nationally available primary energy resources. One such resource is thorium, thus reducing dependence on imported nuclear supplies (given the attendant uncertainties of continued supplies at a future date).
Reprocessing activity is at the core of India’ss three-stage power programme. Major portions of the complex parts of the fuel cycle such as uranium enrichment, spent fuel reprocessing, and heavy water production stating that these are sensitive technologies have been left out of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. Such restrictions should not force India to operate under international control for her nuclear programmes.
The Indo-US Nuclear Deal does not halt or restrict any fissile material production, not can it be allowed to cap India’s strategic programme. A civil-military nuclear Separation Plan in India has been put in place. By placing only 14 out of 22 reactors under international safeguard under the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, Indian nuclear arsenal aspirations are being respected.
The breeder programme is slready kept out of the civil list even in the second stage. Thus, the Indo-US Nuclear Deal does NOT impact on India’s strategic nuclear programme in any manner.
Despite the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, there should be NO SLOWING DOWN of the three-stage programme which is fundamental to the country’s long-term energy needs and energy independence using thorium. We should work out a fast-track programme to cut down on external uranium dependency, even un the Indo-US Nuclear Deal.
By fast-tracking the thorium-based nuclear energy programme, India can cut down on imported nuclear reactors and become an exporter of this technology to the other countries of the world.
India’s thorium reserves are found in the placer – monazite -- sands along the coastline of India and in particular in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Konkan.
Department of Atomic Energy estimates that the country could produce 500 GWe for at least four centuries using just the country’s economically extractable thorium reserves.(Subramanian, T.S., December 1998, "A debate over breeder reactors",Vol. 15, No. 25,(Frontline). Growing demand of electricity is projected to be about 800GWe by 2032 and 1300GWe by 2050. Current Indian energy resources As per official estimates shared in the country's Parliament in August 2011, the country can obtain 846,477 tonnes of thorium from 963,000 tonnes of ThO2, which in turn can be obtained from 10.7 million tonnes of monazite occurring in beaches and river sands in association with other heavy metals. Indian monazite contains about 9–10% ThO2. The 846,477 tonne figure compares with the earlier estimates for India, made by IAEA and US Geological Survey of 319,000 tonnes and 290,000 to 650,000 tonnes respectively. The 800,000 tonne figure is given by other sources as well. It was further clarified in the country’s Parliament on 21 March 2012 that, “Out of nearly 100 deposits of the heavy minerals, at present only 17 deposits containing about 4 million tonnes of monazite have been identified as exploitable. Mineable reserves are ~70% of identified exploitable resources. Therefore, about 225,000 tonnes of thorium metal is available for nuclear power programme.” (Lok Sabha Q&A – Qn. No. 1181 2012.) According to Siegfried Hecker, a former director (1986–1997) of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the U.S., "India has the most technically ambitious and innovative nuclear energy programme in the world. The extent and functionality of its nuclear experimental facilities are matched only by those in Russia and are far ahead of what is left in the US.”
The construction of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor in Kalpakkam is expected to be completed soon. If loading of the fuel is expected in the early part of 2013, followed by one year of system testing after the reactor achieves criticality. Commercial generation of electricity can be expected by 2015. Four FBRs are planned for the 12th Five Year Plan spanning 2012-17, targeting 2500 MW from five reactors. Indian government has already allotted Rs.250 crore for pre-project activities for two more 500 MW units, although the location is yet to be finalized.
Declaration of a new nuclear doctrine by India to promote conservation and controlled use of thorium reserves
India has her destiny to fulfil in the comity of nations.
India has been a beacon of hope for generations for millennia.
As home to the ancient Vedic traditions cherished and practiced in daily lives of millions of Hindus, India has a responsibility to form an Indian Ocean Community (IOC) and provide socio-economic impetus to over 59 Indian Ocean Rim nations.
As a nuclear power, and with space technological competence achieved, India can provide the beneficial applications of atoms and space applications for peace and progress in the IOC.
The geopolitical reality of nuclear powers has to be accepted while the world takes its own time to recognize India as a nuclear power and entitled to a permanent membership of the UN Security Council.
The nuclear tests of 1974 and 1988 have clearly elevated the geopolitical status of India as a nuclear power. In today’s multi-polar world, nuclear power is a determining factor enjoining global responsibilities to a nuclear power state.
India has sufficient natural uranium reserves to sustain a credible nuclear weapons program which will act as a deterrent and also provide for nuclear security umbrella to IOC. India also possesses “enough uranium to sustain more than three times her current and planned capacity as far as nuclear power production involving pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs) is concerned.” This basic reality will not be altered by the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. (Tellis, Ashley. "Atoms for War? U.S.-Indian Civilian Nuclear Cooperation and India's Nuclear Arsenal" , p.7) As Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns noted, “[The civilian nuclear cooperation accord] will help India’s economy gain access to the energy it requires to meet its goal of growing at 8% and beyond over the long term, while reducing competition in global energy markets.” (Remarks as prepared for the House International Relations Committee Hearing. The US and India: An emerging entente? Washington, DC, Sept. 8, 2005).
India faces bottlenecks in mining and milling capacity to fully exploit natural uranium reserves.
- Rare earths uranium enrichment plant at Rattehalli in Mysore
The Rattehalli Rare Materials Plant (RMP) built in the late 1980’s is a pilot-scale gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant, with several hundred centrifuges, and is generally believed to be capable of producing several kilograms of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) each year.
The Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) delivers processed yellowcake to the plant, where it is converted to uranium hexafluoride, which is then processed through a gas centrifuge to produce enriched uranium. The byproduct of the process, depleted uranium, is then transported back to UCIL for disposal in the mines.
In 1997, Nuclear Fuel reported that the DAE was preparing to build and install new improved rotor assemblies at the plant due to unspecified operational difficulties (these new rotor assemblies may have been based on experimental work at BARC that centered on supercritical centrifuges). (Mark Hibbs, "India to equip centrifuge plant with improved rotor assemblies," Nuclear Fuel, Vol. 22, No. 24, 1 December 1997, pp. 7-8.) Leaks were also reported in the steel barrels containing uranium. (Vijendra Rao, P.M., "Leaks reported in steel barrels containing uranium," Deccan Herald(Bangalore), 14 March 1997; In FBIS Document FTS19970530002443.)
The plant is operated by Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), which is a subsidiary of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
US-built light water reactors at Tarapur are the only civil reactors in India that require low-enriched uranium fuel. The enriched uranium is also required for use in fuelling nuclear-powered submarines.
The reactor on board of India's nuclear-powered submarine, INS Arihant, reached criticality on August 10, 2013. The reactor is described as a pressurized water reactor with a power of about 80 MW. It was developed at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research at Kalpakkam, which also hosts the prototype naval reactor. The naval reactors reportedly use HEU fuel with enrichment of about 30% U-235. In addition to the indigenous INS Arihant, India operates a nuclear powered submarine INS Chakra that is leased from Russia.
Srikumar Banerjee, chairman of Atomic Energy Commission of India (AECI) noted on November 26, 2011 that a new enrichment facility in Chitradurga, will be producing uranium with enrichment of about 1.1 percent for India's pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR). This unit will not be placed under safeguards and therefore could be used to produce military material.
Discussing India's reprocessing plans, Srikumar Banerjee said that India is planning to deploy an "integrated nuclear recycle plant" with the capacity of "close to 500 tonne/year of heavy metal" at the Tarapur site (there are two reprocessing facilities in Tarapur today, with the second one opened in January 2011). There are plans to build two more facilities of this kind "during the next plan period" (probably five years). Srikumar Banerjee also referred to a "a fairly large [reprocessing] facility" "that is nearing completion in Kalpakkam." http://fissilematerials.org/blog/2011/11/some_details_of_indias_nu.html India has repeatedly vowed to possess only a minimum credible deterrent but there has been no public announcement about the numbers and types of weapons in the nuclear arsenal. India has necessarily to take note of the fact both China and Pakistan continue to build up their nuclear arsenals and India should keep open her strategic response. As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice noted, the most interesting feature of the Indian nuclear weapons program historically has been its restraint, not its indulgence. (Testimony before Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Hearing on United States-India Atomic Energy Cooperation: the Indian separation plan and administration’s legislative proposal, Washington DC, April 5, 2006).
India’s two research reactors, the Canadian-supplied CIRUS and the indigenously constructed 100-megawatt Dhruva, have been the principal production foundries for fissile material. One assessment made after the 1998 nuclear tests, noted that India had then possessed about 370 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium (WGPu) and that output of Dhruva was about 20 kilograms annually. (David Albright, Fact Sheet: India and Pakistan – Current and Potential Nuclear Arsenals, Institute for Science and International Security, May 13, 1998). The output of 20 kilograms annually is roughly adequate for about three new nuclear weapons annually. One estimate of India’s new production rate indicates between 40 kilograms and 24-32 kilograms of plutonium and tritium – translating to a notional stockpile of some 91 to 65 simple fission weapons. (Tellis, India’s Emerging Nuclear Posture, pp. 487-490.)
The CIRUS reactor was shut down in December 2010. The reactor was used to produce plutonium for the first India's nuclear test in 1974. IPFM estimates that CIRUS produced from 165 to 270 kg of plutonium (this includes plutonium in the fuel still to be reprocessed).
The director of India's Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has announced that there is a proposal to construct two new reactors under the next five year economic plan. These are the High Flux Research Reactor (HFRR), which is to be a compact 30 MW thermal reactor with very high neutron flux, and a reactor named Dhruva-2 with a proposed power rating of 125 MW of thermal power. Officially, the purpose of Dhruva-2 is "bulk irradiations and isotope production", but like the currently operating Dhruva reactor, it will likely be used to produce plutonium for the nuclear weapons program. http://fissilematerials.org/blog/2012/02/india_plans_new_research_r.html There is also a possibility to be explored of a ‘low burnup’ mode to increase the production of weapons-grade plutonium and also tritium. Tritium is a boosting agent required for her advanced nuclear weapons. Most of the literature suggests that a burnup of 1,000 megawatt days per metric ton of uranium (MWD/MTU) is necessary for producing weapons-grade plutonium, that is, plutonium containing an isotopic content of at least 94 percent plutonium-239. CIRUS and Dhruva do not use more than 38 metric tons of natural uranium (MTU) annually when producing an output of some 33 kilograms of weapons-grade material. If the more realistic capacity factors of 0.50 for CIRUS and 0.65 for Dhruva are assumed with the same burnup levels, then the two reactors combined use only some 31 MTU to produce an output of some 27 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium annually.
- Problems connected with Fast Breeder Reactors
Problems exist with the U-233 / Th-232 fuel cycle as compared to the Pu-239 / U-238 fuel cycle.
Precautions
Natural occurring thorium consists of nearly 100% Th-232. Th-228 is a decay product of Th-232 and exists in secular equilibrium with it in proportion to their half-lives.
Like 238U, 232Th is not fissile itself, but it is fertile: it will absorb slow neutrons to produce, after two beta decays, 233U, which is fissile.(Wickleder, Mathias S.; Fourest, Blandine; Dorhourt, Peter K., 2006, "Thorium". In Morss, Lester R.; Edelstein, Norman M.; Fuger, Jean. The Chemistry of the Actinide and Transactinide Elements (3rd ed.), p.52.) Some benefits of thorium fuel when compared with uranium were summarized as follows:[28] · Weapons-grade fissionable material (233U) is harder to retrieve safely and clandestinely from a thorium reactor;
· Thorium produces 10 to 10,000 times less long-lived radioactive waste;
· Thorium mining produces a single pure isotope, whereas the mixture of natural uranium isotopes must be enriched to function in most common reactor designs. The same cycle could also use the fissionable U-238 component of the natural uranium, and also contained in the depleted reactor fuel;
Because of the relatively short half-life (1.91-yr) of Th-228, a situation occurs with separated thorium that does not occur with separated uranium. Th-228 decays rapidly as compared to the uranium isotopes and since its daughters have very short half-lives, the activity of separated thorium increases rapidly from that immediately after separation. The activity reaches a steady-state value of three times the initial activity after about one-month. The activity then decays with a half-life of 1.91-yr as the Th-228 in the separated thorium ore decays. After about 4-yr, the activity again increases as the Ra-228 daughter of Th-232 produces new Th-228.The activity levels off at about four times the original after about 40-yr. The most significant hazards from separated thorium are caused by gaseous Rn-220 and high-energy gammas from Bi-212 and Tl-208. It has been stated that the activity of separated thorium is about 90 times as hazardous as separated uranium and, because of the situation described above, increases to about 270 times as hazardous within one-month.
Physics of Basic Conversion Processes
A fissile isotope is one that can be split into two nominally equal fragments upon the absorption of a thermal neutron. A fissile material is capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction.
The transmutation of fertile isotopes into fissile materials occurs (mostly) through a sequence of neutron capture(s) and beta decay(s). A neutron capture, in which the nucleus absorbs a neutron, increases the isotope’s atomic weight by one but leaves its atomic number unchanged; for example,
A beta decay, in which the nucleus emits a negatively-charged beta particle (β -), increases the atomic number by one but leaves the atomic weight unchanged; for example, where the atomic number of uranium, U, is 92 and of neptunium, Np, is 93. In the transmutations of nuclear reactor fuels, the neutrons captured are (essentially all) fission neutrons from the nuclear chain reaction and the beta emissions are spontaneous radioactive decays with various half lives (t½).
Basic Conversion Sequences for U-238 and Th-232 The basic transmutation sequences for the two fertile isotopes in India’s nuclear power program, U-238 and Th-232, are straightforward – a single neutron capture followed by two successive beta decays. Note: A neutron in the nucleus decays into a (positive) proton and a (negative) beta particle (an electron), which is emitted from the nucleus; that is,
By comparing the half-lives of Np-239 to Pa-233, one can see a problem that exists with the thorium fuel cycle that does not exist in the uranium fuel cycle. If one waits a negligible amount of time between irradiation and reprocessing, a portion of the potentially recoverable U-233 will be lost. Simultaneously, some of the Pa-233 will remain during reprocessing; rapid reprocessing, therefore, will require separation of protactinium which is one of the more difficult elements to separate from uranium. This suggests that a significant delay between irradiation and reprocessing would be appropriate.
Better nuclear characteristics of 232Th and 233U
232Th is a better ‘fertile’ material than 238U in thermal reactors because of the three times higher thermal neutron absorption cross-section of 232Th (7.4 barns) as compared to 238U (2.7 barns). Thus, conversion of 232Th to 233U is more efficient than that of 238U to 239Pu in thermal neutron spectrum though the resonance integral of 232Th is one–third of that of 238U. (IAEA, 2005, p.8)
Innovative fuels
The Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) project of the Department of Energy, USA has developed an innovative metal matrix dispersion, or cermet fuel consisting of (Th, U)O2microspheres (using LEU: <20% 235U) of diameter ~50 micron in a zirconium matrix that can achieve high burnup in a ‘once-through’ cycle and disposed, without processing, as nuclear waste. The volume fraction ratio of fuel microspheres and zirconium matrix is 50:50. (IAEA, 2005, p.33).
India has used the innovative 233U–bearing, Al-clad Al-20%233U plate fuel assemblies as driver fuel in the 30 kWt research reactor KAMINI at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR). (GANGULY, C., et al., “Fabrication experience of Al-233U and Al-Pu plate fuel for PURNIMA III and KAMINI research reactors”, Nuclear Technology 96 (1991) 72-83.)
PRINCETON, N.J. - February 17, 2010 - Hopes that the "fast breeder"- a plutonium-fueled nuclear reactor designed to produce more fuel than it consumed -- might serve as a major part of the long-term nuclear waste disposal solution are not merited by the dismal track record to date of such sodium-cooled reactors in France, India, Japan, the
Advantages of India’s relatively pure thorium ores
The relatively pure thorium ores found in the monazite sands of India have a very low Th-230 concentration (0.5 ppm). This may allow India to design a fuel cycle with fewer handling problems associated with higher levels of U-232 contamination resulting from the utilization of other world resources of thorium ore. Note: Based on recent experimental irradiation of thorium blankets in BN–350, the Russians have reported that the 232U content in bred 233U could be brought down to extremely low levels (≤11 ppm) by locating thorium blankets at a distance of 15–20 cm away from core border (IAEA, 2005, p.30).
At Savannah River in the 1960s, recovered thorium was put in railroad tank cars that were then put in an isolated yard for several years while these isotopes decayed sufficiently for the radiation levels to drop to a level where the thorium could be treated like natural thorium.Because of this, it may not be practical in a commercial fuel cycle to recycle the recovered thorium until it has been stored for a period of 5 to 20-yr. (Bucher, R.G., 2010, India’s baseline for nuclear energy self-sufficiency , Argonne National Laboratory, National Nuclear Safety Administration, Office of International Regimes and Agreements, US Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-0062.)
Increased Doubling Time
The fast fission cross-section of U-238 is 4 to 5 times greater than that of Th-232. Partially because of this, use of Th-232 in a fast spectrum reactor leads to a lower breeding ratio. Consequently, the difference in doubling time, the amount of time to double the amount of fissile material assuming a growing number of breeder reactors, is significant. For one fast breeder reactor scenario, it has been estimated that the doubling time when utilizing the U-235-Pu-239 fuel cycle is 17.8-yr while the doubling time when utilizing the U-233-Th-232 fuel cycle is 108-yr.
Soviet Union/Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to a major new study from the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM).
Titled "Fast Breeder Reactor Programs: History and Status," the IPFM report concludes: "The problems (with fast breeder reactors) ... make it hard to dispute Admiral Hyman Rickover's summation in 1956, based on his experience with a sodium-cooled reactor developed to power an early U.S. nuclear submarine, that such reactors are 'expensive to build, complex to operate, susceptible to prolonged shutdown as a result of even minor malfunctions, and difficult and time-consuming to repair.'"
Plagued by high costs, often multi-year downtime for repairs (including a 15-year reactor restart delay in Japan), multiple safety problems (among them often catastrophic sodium fires triggered simply by contact with oxygen), and unresolved proliferation risks, "fast breeder" reactors already have been the focus of more than $50 billion in development spending, including more than $10 billion each by the U.S., Japan and Russia. As the IPFM report notes: "Yet none of these efforts has produced a reactor that is anywhere near economically competitive with light-water reactors ... After six decades and the expenditure of the equivalent of tens of billions of dollars, the promise of breeder reactors remains largely unfulfilled and efforts to commercialize them have been steadily cut back in most countries."
The new IPFM report is a timely and important addition to the understanding about reactor technology. Today, with increased attention being paid both to so-called "Generation IV" reactors, some of which are based on the fast reactor technology, and a new Obama Administration panel focusing on reprocessing and other waste issues, interest in some quarters has shifted back to fast reactors as a possible means by which to bypass concerns about the longterm storage of nuclear waste.
Frank von Hippel, Ph.D., co-chair of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, and professor of Public and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, said: "The breeder reactor dream is not dead but it has receded far into the future. In the 1970s, breeder advocates were predicting that the world would have thousands of breeder reactors operating by now. Today, they are predicting commercialization by approximately 2050. In the meantime, the world has to deal with the legacy of the dream; approximately 250 tons of separated weapon-usable plutonium and ongoing -- although, in most cases struggling -- reprocessing programs in France, India, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom."
Mycle Schneider, Paris, international consultant on energy and nuclear policy, said: "France built with Superphenix, the only commercial-size plutonium fueled breeder reactor in nuclear history. After an endless series of very costly technical, legal and safety problems it was shut down in 1998 with one of the worst operating records in nuclear history."
Thomas B. Cochran, nuclear physicist and senior scientist in the Nuclear Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said: "Fast reactor development programs failed in the: 1) United States; 2) France; 3) United Kingdom; 4) Germany; 5) Japan; 6) Italy; 7) Soviet Union/Russia 8) U.S. Navy and 9) the Soviet Navy. The program in India is showing no signs of success and the program in China is only at a very early stage of development. Despite the fact that fast breeder development began in 1944, now some 65 year later, of the 438 operational nuclear power reactors worldwide, only one of these, the BN-600 in Russia, is a commercial-size fast reactor and it hardly qualifies as a successful breeder. The Soviet Union/Russia never closed the fuel cycle and has yet to fuel BN-600 with plutonium."
M.V. Ramana, Ph.D., visiting research scholar, Woodrow Wilson School and the Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy, Princeton University, said: "Along with Russia, India is one of only two countries that are currently constructing commercial scale breeder reactors. Both the history of the program and the economic and safety features of the reactor suggest, however, that the program will not fulfill the promises with which it was begun and is being pursued. Breeder reactors have always underpinned the DAE's claims about generating large quantities of cheap electricity necessary for development. Today, more than five decades after those plans were announced, that promise is yet to be fulfilled. As elsewhere, breeder reactors are likely to be unsafe and costly, and their contribution to overall electricity generation will be modest at best."
OTHER KEY FINDINGS
The IPFM report also found:
· The rationale for breeder reactors is no longer sound. "The rationale for pursuing breeder reactors -- sometimes explicit and sometimes implicit -- was based on the following key assumptions: 1. Uranium is scarce and high-grade deposits would quickly become depleted if fission power were deployed on a large scale; 2. Breeder reactors would quickly become economically competitive with the light-water reactors that dominate nuclear power today; 3. Breeder reactors could be as safe and reliable as light-water reactors; and, 4. The proliferation risks posed by breeders and their 'closed' fuel cycle, in which plutonium would be recycled, could be managed. Each of these assumptions has proven to be wrong."
· Significant safety issues are unresolved. "Sodium's major disadvantage is that it reacts violently with water and burns if exposed to air. The steam generators, in which moltensodium and high-pressure water are separated by thin metal, have proved to be one of the most troublesome features of breeder reactors. Any leak results in a reaction that can rupture the tubes and lead to a major sodium-water fire. .... a large fraction of the liquid-sodiumcooled reactors that have been built have been shut down for long periods by sodium fires. Russia's BN-350 had a huge sodium fire. The follow-on BN-600 reactor was designed with its steam generators in separate bunkers to contain sodium-water fires and with an extra steam generator so a fire-damaged steam generator can be repaired while the reactor continues to operate using the extra steam generator. Between 1980 and 1997, the BN-600 had 27 sodium leaks, 14 of which resulted in sodium fires ... Leaks from pipes into the air have also resulted in serious fires. In 1995, Japan's prototype fast reactor, Monju, experienced a major sodium-air fire. Restart has been repeatedly delayed, and, as of the end of 2009, the reactor was still shut down. France's Rapsodie, Phenix and Superphenix breeder reactors and the UK's Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR) and Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) all suffered significant sodium leaks, some of which resulted in serious fires."
· Downtime makes the breeder reactor unreliable. "... a large fraction of sodium-cooled demonstration reactors have been shut down most of the time that they should have been generating electric power. A significant part of the problem has been the difficulty of maintaining and repairing the reactor hardware that is immersed in sodium. The requirement to keep air from coming into contact with sodium makes refueling and repairs inside the reactor vessel more complicated and lengthy than for water-cooled reactors. During repairs, the fuel has to be removed, the sodium drained and the entire system flushed carefully to remove residual sodium without causing an explosion. Such preparations can take months or years.
· Proliferation risks have not been addressed. "All reactors produce plutonium in their fuel but breeder reactors require plutonium recycle, the separation of plutonium from the ferociously radioactive fission products in the spent fuel. This makes the plutonium more accessible to would-be nuclear-weapon makers. Breeder reactors -- and separation of plutonium from the spent fuel of ordinary reactors to provide startup fuel for breeder reactors -- therefore create proliferation problems. This fact became dramatically clear in 1974, when India used the first plutonium separated for its breeder reactor program to make a 'peaceful nuclear explosion.' Breeders themselves have also been used to produce plutonium for weapons. France used its Phenix breeder reactor to make weapon-grade plutonium in its blanket. India, by refusing to place its breeder reactors under international safeguards as part of the U.S.-India nuclear deal, has raised concerns that it might do the same."
· Most breeder reactors are being shut down. "Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States have abandoned their breeder reactor development programs. Despite the arguments by France's nuclear conglomerate Areva, that fast-neutron reactors will ultimately fission all the plutonium building up in France's light-water reactor spent fuel, France's only operating fast-neutron reactor, Phenix, was disconnected from the grid in March 2009 and scheduled for permanent shutdown by the end of that year. The Superphenix, the world's first commercial-sized breeder reactor, was abandoned in 1998 and is being decommissioned. There is no follow-on breeder reactor planned in France for at least a decade." For the full text of the IPFM study, go to http://www.fissilematerials.org on the Web.
- Three-stage thorium cycle programme
As a hedge against being cut off in the future from access to uranium resources of the world, India has to stay firm with the three-stage thorium cycle programme to ensure preservation of a source of unsafeguarded reactor-grade plutonium for feeding her breeder component. This is the reason for withholding from safeguards the appropriate reprocessing capacity of the country. Accordingly eight PHWRs were withheld from safeguards along with PREFRE and KARP plants intended to reprocess spent fuel from the sequestered power reactors. (Because the PREFRE facility also reprocesses fuel from other safeguarded PHWRs, it will be brought under safeguards in “campaign mode,” meaning that it will come under safeguards whenever safeguarded spent fuel passes through this facility. The third reprocessing plant at Trombay will continue to remain outside of safeguards because it remains dedicated to supporting the Indian nuclear weapons program.) (ibid., p. 48)
It is necessary to ensure that these eight safeguarded PHWRs are committed to the task of producing the unsafeguarded reactor-grade plutonium necessary to fuel India’s prospective and future breeders throughout their operational lives. They should also be used for tritium production, either as receptacles for the irradiation of lithium or through harvesting from their heavy water moderators. Using a fraction of these reactors for producing weapons-grade plutonium should also be ensured to augment the nuclear arsenal as the geopolitical strategies dictate.
India’s inventory of reactor-grade plutonium would now be committed in magnitudes averagins tons – not kilograms – to fuelling the multiple breeders which are likely to become operational over the next few decades. Since these breeders are fast neutron reactors, the doubling time – that is, the time to produce twice as much plutonium as is consumed by the reactor – is extremely slow, on the order of some 10-15 years. (ibid., p.48)
A threat is posed by a global fissile material cutoff treaty (FMCT) is effectively countered by India persisting with the PFBR which should be given priority to become operational and be a reliable source of fissile materials.
An option that India should consider is to skip the second stage of the three-stage programme, by selecting a parallel approach such as the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, the molten salt reactor, and various accelerator driven systems all of which exploit thorium for the production of electricity, but without the need for any intermediate-stage fast neutron reactors. (Tellis, Ashley J. (2006), Atoms for War? U.S.-Indian Civil Nuclear Cooperation and India’s Nuclear Arsenal (pdf), Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, p.51) - Thorium as nuclear fuel in reactors
The naturally occurring isotope thorium-232 is a fertile material, and with a suitable neutron source can be used as nuclear fuel innuclear reactors, including breeder reactors. In 1997, the U.S. Energy Department underwrote research into thorium fuel, and research also was begun in 1996 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to study the use of thorium reactors. Nuclear scientist Alvin Radkowsky of Tel Aviv University in Israel founded a consortium to develop thorium reactors, which included other companies: Raytheon Nuclear Inc., Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow. (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. September/October 1997 pp. 19–20.) India’s modest uranium but vast thorium reserves dictate that th primary objective would be thorium utilization. These reserves of the country account for roughly one-third of the world reserves. A stable, sustainable and autonomous programme can be accomplished using these reserves.
Unique among elements, thorium atoms can bond to more atoms than any other element. For instance, in the compound thorium tetrakisaminodiborane, thorium bonds to fifteen hydrogen atoms.
Thorium dioxide has the highest melting point (3300 °C) of all oxides.
Thorium(IV) nitrate and thorium(IV) fluoride are known in their hydrated forms: Th(NO
3)4·4H2O and ThF4·4H2O, respectively.[9]Thorium(IV) carbonate, Th(CO3)2, is also known. Thorium(IV) hydroxide, Th(OH)4, is highly insoluble in water, and is not amphoteric. The peroxide of thorium, ThO4 or Th(O2)2, is rare in being an insoluble solid. This property can be used to separate thorium from other ions in solution.
India’s nuclear power program envisions using breeder reactors to produce fis
by converting two fertile isotopes, U-238 and Th-232, into fissile materials.
U-238, which comprises 99.3% of natural uranium, is converted to the fissile element plutonium (Pu-239, Pu-240, etc.); and Th-232, which is essentially 100.0% of natural thorium, is converted to the fissile isotope U-233. The conversion of U-238 allows India to more effectively utilize its limited natural ranium resources, whereas the conversion of Th-232 allows her to access the energy potential of massive horium reserves.
The plutonium will be the fissile component to drive the reactor and the uranium, the fertile component to breed the additional plutonium. The blankets surrounding the cores will be composed of thorium, from India’s abundant reserves, in order to breed U-233. Of the newly-bred fissile materials, the plutonium will be used to fuel additional stage 2 fast breeder reactors; and both the plutonium and U-233 will become the driver fuel for the startup of the thorium utilization reactors, and other systems, of stage 3.
The objective of stage 3 is to achieve a sustainable nuclear fuel cycle by developing
thorium–U-233 based systems that utilize India’s vast thorium reserves to provide longterm energy security with nuclear power. New systems are being engineered to optimize
the use of plutonium produced in stage 2 fast breeder reactors, one, to maximize the conversion of thorium to U-233, two, to extract power in-situ -- that is, power is generated in-situ through fissioning of U-233 bred from thorium in the fuel since its fabrication -- from the thorium fuel, and, three, to recycle the bred U-233 in additional reactors. In addition, systems based on the thorium fuel cycle offer both neutronic and non-proliferation advantages over plutonium fuel cycles. These stage 3 concepts are to be implemented in parallel with the continuing development and deployment of stage 1 and stage 2 reactors and fuel cycle operations. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/..., “Design and development of the AHWR – the Indian thorium fuelled innovative nuclear reactor,” Nuclear Engineering and Design, Vol. 236, p 683-700, Sept., 2005. 77 , http://www.dae.gov.in/publ/3rdstage.pdf, “Shaping the Third Stage of Indian Nuclear Power Program.”) India’s experience with the thorium fuel cycle, which is necessary for the country’s nuclear power program to be self sufficient, is unique in the international community.
power program to be self sufficient, is unique in the international community.
Thorium (with atomic number 90) is chiefly refined from monazite sands as a by-product of extracting rare earth metals.
Thorium, unlike uranium, does not contain an isotope capable of sustaining the fission chain reaction necessary for a nuclear reactor. However, thorium can be converted into such an isotope [uranium-233 (U-233)] in, for example, nuclear reactors.
Canada, China, Germany, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States have experimented with using thorium as a substitute nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors.[2] When compared to uranium, there is a growing interest in developing a thorium fuel cycle due to its greater safety benefits, absence of non-fertile isotopes and its higher occurrence and availability. ("IAEA-TECDOC-1450 Thorium Fuel Cycle-Potential Benefits and Challenges" (PDF). International Atomic Energy Agency. May 2005) JULY 01, 2013
The TPC - DBI thorium nuclear reactor patent
Thorium Power Canada is in advanced talks with Chile and Indonesia for 10 MW and 25 MW solid thorium fueled reactors
The TPC (Thorium Power Canada) Thorium Reactor is a one-of-a-kind technology whose modular design can achieve any output desired at significantly reduced capital and carrying costs. The cost to build a reactor is estimated at $2.0 million per MW and can be built in 18-24 months versus conventional reactors at 5-7 years. Through a partnership with DBI, the company’s thorium reactor design provides a nuclear alternative to fossil fuel consumption, taking advantage of abundant and widely available thorium deposits. The TPC Thorium Reactor has been in research and development since 1970.
There is 2010 patent Thorium-based nuclear reactor and method US 20100067644 A1 by Hector A. D'Auvergne who is the main person behind this reactor design.
Next big future has summarized the patent.
Chilean 10 MW Thorium Desalination Plant
They are planning a 10 MW thorium reactor located in Copiapó, Chile consists of a core and reactor manufactured by DBI Operating Company in California. The balance of plant, including all buildings and required infrastructure will be constructed on site.
It is estimated that the TPC Thorium Reactor will provide enough power to produce 20 million litres per day at the desalination plant. This is the equivalent amount that would power 3500 homes.
An application for condition approval to build a demonstration reactor has been submitted to the Chilean Government.
Indonesian 25 MW Thorium Power Project
Thorium Power Canada is presently preparing a proposal for the development of a 25 MW thorium reactor in Indonesia. This demonstration power project will provide electrical power to the country’s power grid.
Indonesia could install a reactor on the island of Kalimantan in as soon as two years, Kerr said. The reactor would either connect to the grid in the rapidly expanding country, or power a water desalination plant.
Thorium burns longer and at higher temperatures to achieve many efficiencies over other conventional fuels including more efficient fuel utilization, the elimination of packaging waste, and significant reduction of long-lived radioactive isotopes. One pound of Thorium will produce the same energy output as 300 lbs of Uranium and 3.5 million pounds of coal, without the environmental effects of coal in the atmosphere and the risks associated with Uranium generators and waste products. There is 90% less waste with a Thorium reactor with the little waste produced requiring storage for an average of 200 years.
The DBI Thorium Breeding/Breeder Reactor represents an evolutionary advance in nuclear reactor design. Under development for four decades, the reactor consists of a small number of robust, mechanically-elegant and low pressure core systems.
Components have been built and a reactor mockup has been built
Three applications for the Thorium Reactor.
Booster Steam for Existing Power Plants - DBI reactors offer 75 MW thermal and 100MW thermal modules that provide less expensive steam heat for the conversion or upgrade of existing fossil fuel-using power plants while dramatically reducing carbon emissions. The company’s products and services will be offered through licenses for modular thorium nuclear powered steam boosters and will be installed in existing power plant sites and operated under the existing Environmental Impact Report of the original power plant.
Production of Alternating Current (AC) for use on the World’s Electricity Grids - DBI’s aim is to offer less expensive alternating current to the global wholesale electricity generation market. The company’s products will be offered through licenses for modular thorium nuclear powered steam boosters with steam turbine AC generators and associated equipment (BusBar, etc) to produce alternating current suitable for use on the world’s alternating current electric power grids.
Steam and Direct Current (DC) for High Temperature Electrolysis - The DBI reactor can supply less expensive steam heat and direct current electricity for the generation of hydrogen (via high temperature electrolysis) for use in existing agriculture and emerging synthetic fuel applications. The company’s products will be offered through licenses for modular thorium nuclear powered steam boosters with steam turbine DC generators for hydrogen production.
“Considering the sequential nature of the indigenous nuclear power program, and the lead time involved at each stage, it is expected that appreciable time will be taken for direct thorium utilization. Therefore, innovative design of reactors for direct use of thorium is also in progress in parallel to three stage program. In this context, the frontier technologies being developed include the Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS) and dvanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR). The ADS essentially is a subcritical system using high-energy particles for fission. One of the significant advantages of this system is small quantity of waste production. The quantity of waste in this system is greatly reduced in comparison to the existing reactors as Actinides produced in ADS are `burnt’ out. The AHWR is another innovative concept, which will act as a bridge between the first and third stage essentially to advance thorium utilization without undergoing second stage of the three stage program. It uses light water as coolant and heavy water as moderator. It is fuelled by a mixture of Plutonium239 and Thorium232, with a sizeable amount of power coming from Thorium232.” (Jain, S.K., Chairman & MD, NPCIL & Bharatiya Nabhikia Vidyut Nigam Limited, Nuclear power -- an alternative, p.4) http://www.npcil.nic.in/pdf/nuclear%20power-%20an%20alternative.pdf It is a tribute to the Indian scientists that when Canadian assistance was withdrawn for the 220MWe PHWR, Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) – 1 and 2 were successfully completed and (Madras Atomic Power Station) MAPS units 1 and 2 were constructed and commissioned with indigenous efforts. The standard 220MWe design was scaled up to 540 MWe and TAPP 3 and 4 (2X540MWe) have been set up. The700 MWe PHWR design, using the same core of 540 MWe has been developed and construction of eight such reactors is planned. Capabilities have also been developed in front and back ends of the fuel cycle, from mining, fuel fabrication, storage of spent fuel, reprocessing and waste management. Infrastructure for other inputs heavy water, zirconium components, control and instrumentation etc. has been established. At present 17 reactors with a capacity of 4120 MWe are in operation.
The FTBR was largely based on the French Rapsodie Fortissimo reactor at Cadarache.
Facility civil construction began at the Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research (IGCAR)44 in Kalpakkam in 1972 and was completed by 1977. However, because of India’s nuclear isolation, the anticipated supply of highly enriched uranium required to fabricate the mixed oxide fuel for the initial core design was not received from France. The core was reconfigured to be a smaller, mixed carbide core with a significantly reduced power; initial criticality was not achieved until October, 1985. At this time, India became the sixth member of the elite club of nations with fast reactors, joining the United States, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Japan. In July, 1997, stage 2
fast breeder reactors began to contribute to India’s power requirements.
India has three innovative nuclear concepts in the design and development phases. The primary system for implementing the thorium utilization strategy is an advanced thermal reactor that draws on the proven PHWR pressure tube and heavy water technologies to satisfy each of the three design objectives stated above. A second, non-reactor, technology utilizes an accelerator and a subcritical assembly not only for the efficient conversion of thorium and possible generation of power but also for the incineration of long-lived actinides and fission products obtained from spent fuel reprocessing. The third system is a compact modular reactor suitable either for the production of electrical energy in remote areas or for the generation of process heat for the conversion of fossil fuels. India could begin large scale commercial deployment for electrical generation as well as for non-electrical applications, such as the desalination of sea water and the generation of portable, non-fossil fuels.
Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR)
The initial 300 MW AHWR of stage 3 is also anticipated to be in operation by 2020.
The primary reactor system envisioned for stage 3, the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR), contains both evolutionary and revolutionary design concepts. The AHWR is a 920 MWt / 300 MWe heavy water moderated but light water cooledxiv reactor that uses the well-proven pressure tube technology of the PHWR. The low-pressure reactor vessel, the “calandria,” and the concentric calandria and pressure tubes are similar in design to those in the PHWR, except the calandria is oriented vertically, rather than horizontally. Vertical pressure tubes allow the removal of core heat through natural circulation of the boiling light water coolant, avoiding the need for primary coolant pumps and, hence, adding a measure of operational reliability and passive safety. In addition to power generation, the AHWR is also intended to desalinate sea water at the rate of 500 cubic meters (132,000 gal) per day. If desired, desalination capacity can be increased, with each 1000 cubic meters (264,000 gal) per day reducing the gross electrical output an estimated 0.95 Mwe.
Note: In contrast to the PHWR which uses heavy water as both moderator and coolant, the AHWR is able to use heavy water as the moderator and light water as the coolant because thorium, rather than uranium, is the dominant component of the fuel mixture. Light water is a stronger absorber of neutrons than heavy water, but thorium is a stronger absorber than uranium; the net effect is that the fraction of neutrons lost by “parasitic” absorption in coolant, moderator, and structural material is reduced.
78. 8 http://www.sciencedirect.com/..., “Design and development of the AHWR – the Indian thorium fuelled innovative nuclear reactor,” Nuclear Engineering and Design, Vol. 236, p 683-700, Sept., 2005.
The present concept for the equilibriumxv AHWR core, which is housed in the low-pressure calandria, contains 452 pressure tubes, each loaded with an identical fuel cluster. This cluster, as shown in Fig. 4, consists of three concentric rings of fuel pins around a central rod assembly. The twenty-four pins in the outer ring are loaded with a mixture of thorium and plutonium oxides (ThO2-PuO2); in order to obtain “favorable minimum critical heat flux ratios,” the plutonium content is 4.0% in the lower half of the active fuel and 2.5% in the upper half. The other two rings of fuel pins contain a mixture of thorium and U-233 oxides (ThO2–U-233O2) with a U-233 content of 3.0 % in the twelve pins of the inner ring and 25% in the eighteen pins of the middle ring. The central rod assembly contains twelve pins of dysprosium oxide in a zirconium dioxide matrix (DyO2-ZrO2) and a central channel for water from the Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS). The light water coolant flows through the cluster in the spaces among the three concentric rings of fuel pins, but outside the central rod assembly.![]()
79. 8 http://www.sciencedirect.com/..., “Design and development of the AHWR – the Indian thorium fuelled innovative nuclear reactor,” Nuclear Engineering and Design, Vol. 236, p 683-700, Sept., 2005. The first of the two primary objectives of the equilibrium core design was to optimize thorium utilization, by maximizing both the conversion of thorium to U-233 and the power extracted in-situ from thorium. Maximum breeding of U-233 is needed to produce sufficient fissile material for recycle in AHWRs in order to attain the self-sufficiency characteristic required from a stage 3 reactor design. Power extracted in-situ is important for minimizing the initial inventory and consumption of the plutonium. Overall, the fuel cluster design was to achieve at least 60% of the power production from thorium and U-233 while maintaining an average burnup of 24,000 MWd/t at discharge . The AHWR concept envisions a closed nuclear fuel cycle. Initially, both the thorium and U-233 recovered from the spent fuel will be used to fabricate fresh fuel pins for the AHWR fuel cluster. However, the reprocessed plutonium, with its increased concentration of higher plutonium isotopes and the presence of higher actinides, is to be stored for later fueling of fast breeder reactors; the plutonium for the fresh fuel will be obtained from recycled spent PHWR fuel. In the long term, when transmutation systems based on fastbreeder reactors and accelerator driven subcritical systems have sufficient capacity, the fuel cycle will be extended so as to take advantage of the synergies between the various concepts in all three stages of India’s nuclear program.
Accelerator Driven Subcritical Systems (ADS)
A second power production system for thorium utilization is being investigated – an Accelerator Driven Subcritical System (ADS). In such a system, a high current proton accelerator delivers a beam of protons onto a spallationxviii target that functions as an external source of neutrons to drive a subcritical assembly.xix In the Indian concept, fissile U-233 and fertile Th-232 in the subcritical assembly are bombarded by the externally produced neutrons, causing either fission in the U-233, producing more neutrons and generating heat, or neutron capture by the Th-232, breeding more fissile U-233. However, since the configuration is subcritical, these processes continue while the external neutron source is present but decay away when the accelerator is turned off.
Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR)
India is also developing a small modular reactor concept, the Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR), as an integral component of the stage 3 objective of utilizing its thorium resources to satisfy various energy needs. In addition, its development is serving as a demonstration of technologies relevant for next generation high temperature reactor systems.
84 http://www.indian-nuclear-society.org.in/conf/2005/pdf_3/topic_03/T3_CP3_Dulera_Paper1.pdf, “Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR)”, Proceedings of Sixteenth Annual Conference of Indian Nuclear Society (INSAX-2005), November 15-18, 2005.
85 http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/te_1536_web.pdf, “Status of Small Reactor Designs Without On-Site Refueling,” Annex XXIX, “Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR),” International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA-TECDOC-1536, January, 2007.
Molten Salt Reactor using thorium as nuclear fuel
Indian options for thorium-based nuclear reactors, while staying firm and steadfast on the long-gestation three-stage programme design laid out by Homi Bhabha, should also include direct use of thorium for power generation. One such option is a liquid-fuel cycle (e.g. Molten Salt Reactor or MSR) where only a limited amount of 233U ever exists in the reactor and its heat-transfer systems, preventing any access to weapons material; however the neutrons produced by the reactor can be absorbed by a thorium or uranium blanket and fissile 233U or 239Pu produced. Also, the 233U could be continuously extracted from the molten fuel as the reactor is running. Neutrons from the decay of uranium-233 can be fed back into the fuel cycle to start the cycle again. (Wickleder, opcit., p. 53). The neutron flux from spontaneous fission of 233U is negligible. 233U can thus be used easily in a simple gun-type nuclear bomb design (Wilson, R. (1998). "Accelerator Driven Subcritical Assemblies". Report to Energy Environment and Economy Committee, U.S. Global Strategy Council.) Thorium can be and has been used to power nuclear energy plants using both the modified traditional Generation III reactor design (which include improved fuel technology, superior thermal efficiency, passive safety systems and standardized design for reduced maintenance and capital costs) and prototype Generation IV reactor designs.
The next Gen III reactor predicted to come on line is a Westinghouse AP1000 reactor, scheduled to become operational in Sanmen, China, in late 2013. The People’s Republic of China has initiated a research project in thorium molten-salt reactor technology. It was formally announced at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) annual conference in January 2011. The plan was "to build a tiny 2 MW plant using liquid fluoride fuel by the end of the decade, before scaling up to commercially viable size over the 2020s. (Clark, Duncan (February 16, 2011). "China enters race to develop nuclear energy from thorium". The Guardian.) Molten salt fueling options
· The thorium-fueled variant called Liquid fluoride thorium reactor, has been very exciting to many nuclear engineers. Its most prominent champion was Alvin Weinberg, who patented the light-water reactor and was a director of the U.S.'s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a prominent nuclear research center. The Weinberg Foundation is a British non-profit organization founded in 2011, dedicated to act as a communications, debate and lobbying hub to raise awareness about the potential of thorium energy and LFTR. It was formally launched at the House of Lords on 8 September 2011. It is named after American nuclear physicist Alvin M. Weinberg, who pioneered the thorium molten salt reactor research. http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2107710/ngo-fuel-safe-thorium-nuclear-reactors A molten salt reactoris a type of Generation III nuclear reactor where the primary coolant, or even the fuel itself is a molten salt mixture. There have been many designs put forward for this type of reactor and a few prototypes built. The early concepts and many current ones rely on nuclear fuel dissolved in the molten fluoride salt as uranium tetrafluoride (UF4) or thorium tetrafluoride (ThF4), the fluid would reach criticality by flowing into a graphite core which would also serve as the moderator. Many current concepts rely on fuel that is dispersed in a graphite matrix with the molten salt providing low pressure, high temperature cooling. The liquid fluoride thorium reactor (acronym LFTR; spoken as lifter) is a thermal breeder molten salt reactor which uses the thorium fuel cycle in a fluoride-based molten salt fuel to achieve high operating temperatures at atmospheric pressure. It has recently been the subject of a renewed interest worldwide. (US DOE Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee (2002). A Technology Roadmap for Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems. Stenger, Victor (12 January 2012). "LFTR: A Long-Term Energy Solution?". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victor-stenger/lftr-a-longterm-energy-so_b_1192584.html Reactors containing molten thorium salt, called liquid fluoride thorium reactors (LFTR), would tap the abundant energy source of the thorium fuel cycle. Private companies from Japan, Russia, Australia and the United States, and the Chinese government, have expressed interest in developing this technology. (Charles Barton Interview with Ralph Moir at Energy From Thorium blog, March 2008. Kirk Sorensen has Started a Thorium Power Company at NextBigFuture blog, 23 May 2011. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard China blazes trail for 'clean' nuclear power from thorium The Daily Telegraph, UK, 6 Jan 2013.) Generation IV reactors (Gen IV) are a set of theoretical nuclear reactor designs currently being researched. Most of these designs are generally not expected to be available for commercial construction before 2030.
Molten salt reactors:
Advantages
The molten salt reactor offers many potential advantages compared to current light water reactors:
· Operating at a low pressure improves safety and simplifies the design
· In theory a full recycle system can be much cleaner: the discharge wastes after chemical separation are predominately fission products, most of which have relatively short half lives compared to longer-lived actinide wastes. This can result in a significant reduction in the containment period in a geologic repository (300 years vs. tens of thousands of years).
· The fuel's liquid phase is adequate for pyroprocessing for separation of fission products. This may have advantages over conventional reprocessing, though much development is still needed.
· There is no need for fuel rod manufacturing
· Some designs can "burn" problematic transuranic elements from traditional solid-fuel nuclear reactors.
· A MSR can react to load changes in less than 60 seconds (unlike "traditional" solid-fuel nuclear power plants that suffer from Xenon poisoning).
· Molten salt reactors can run at high temperatures, yielding high efficiencies to produce electricity.
· Some MSRs can offer a high "specific power", that is high power at a low mass. This was demonstrated by the ARE, the aircraft reactor experiment.[3] · a possibly good neutron economy makes the MSR attractive for the neutron poor thorium fuel cycle. Disadvantages
· Little development compared to most Gen IV designs - much is unknown.
· Need to operate an on-site chemical plant to manage core mixture and remove fission products.
· Lithium containing salts will cause significant tritium production (comparable with heavy water reactors), even if pure 7Li is used. · Likely need for regulatory changes to deal with radically different design features.
· Corrosion may occur over many decades of reactor operation and could be problematic.
· Nickel and iron based alloys are prone to embrittlement under high neutron flux.
Molten Salt Reactor Scheme
A molten salt reactor (MSR) is a class of nuclear fission reactors in which the primary coolant, or even the fuel itself, is a molten salt mixture. MSRs run at higher temperatures than water-cooled reactors for higher thermodynamic efficiency, while staying at low vapor pressure.
Operating at near atmospheric pressures reduces the mechanical stress endured by the system, thus simplifying aspects of reactor design and improving safety. It should be possible to construct and operate molten salt reactors more cheaply than coal power plants. (M. W. Moir (2002). Cost of Electricity from Molten Salt Reactors (MSR) 138. Nuclear Technology. pp. 93–95.) The nuclear fuel may be solid or dissolved in the coolant itself. In many designs the nuclear fuel is dissolved in the molten fluoride salt coolant as uranium tetrafluoride (UF4). The fluid becomes critical in a graphite core which serves as the moderator. Solid fuel designs rely on ceramic fuel dispersed in a graphite matrix, with the molten salt providing low pressure, high temperature cooling. The salts are much more efficient than compressed Helium at removing heat from the core, reducing the need for pumping, piping and reducing the size of the core. In Russia, a molten-salt reactor research program was started in the second half of the 1970s at the Kurchatov Institute. It covered a wide range of theoretical and experimental studies, particularly the investigation of mechanical, corrosion and radiation properties of the molten salt container materials. The main findings of completed program supported the conclusion that there are no physical nor technological obstacles to the practical implementation of MSRs
The Shippingport Pressurized Water Reactor and Light Water Breeder Reactor
This report discusses the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, located in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, which was the first large-scale nuclear power plant in the United States and the first plant of such size in the world operated solely to produce electric power. A program was started in 1953 at the Bettis Laboratory to confirm the practical application of nuclear power for large-scale electric power generation. It led to the development of zirconium alloy (Zircaloy) clad fuel element containing bulk actinide oxide ceramics (UO{sub 2}, ThO{sub 2}, ThO{sub 2} -- UO{sub 2}, ZrO{sub 2} -- UO{sub 2}) as nuclear reactor fuels. The program provided much of the technology being used for design and operation of the commercial, central-station nuclear power plants now in use. The Shippingport Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) began initial power operation on December 18, 1957, and was a reliable electric power producer until February 1974. In 1965, subsequent to the successful operation of the Shippingport PWR (UO{sub 2}, ZrO{sub 2} -- UO{sub 2} fuels), the Bettis Laboratory undertook a research and development program to design and build a Light Water Breeder Reactor (LWBR) core for operation in the Shippingport Station. Thorium was the fertile fuel in the LWBR core and was the base oxide for ThO{sub 2} and ThO{sub 2} -- UO{sub 2} fuel pellets. The LWBR core was installed in the pressure vessel of the original Shippingport PWR as its last core before decommissioning. The LWBR core started operation in the Shippingport Station in the autumn of 1977 and finished routine power operation on October 1, 1982. Successful LWBR power operation to over 160% of design lifetime demonstrated the performance capability of the core for both base-load and swing-load operation. Postirradiation examinations confirmed breeding and successful performance of the fuel system.
http://www.osti.gov/scitech/biblio/10191380 Publication date: 1993-11-01
The use of thorium as an alternative fuel is one innovation being explored by the International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO),[37] conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). (Sollychin, Ray. (3 September 2009) Exploring Fuel Alternatives. Iaea.org. )
Thorium fuel cycle – an IAEA study (2005)
Several experimental and prototype power reactors were successfully operated during the mid 1950s to the mid 1970s using (Th, U)O2 and (Th, U)C2 fuels in high temperature gas cooled reactors (HTGR), (Th, U)O2 fuel in light water reactors (LWR) and Li7F/BeF2/ThF4/UF4 fuel in molten salt breeder reactor (MSBR). 232Th and 233U are the best ‘fertile’ and ‘fissile’ materials respectively for thermal neutron reactors and ‘thermal breeding’ has been demonstrated for (Th, U)O2 fuel in the Shippingport light water breeder reactor (LWBR). ThO2 has also been successfully used as blanket material in liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) and for neutron flux flattening of the initial core of pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) during startup.
So far, thorium fuels have not been introduced commercially because the estimated uranium resources turned out to be sufficient for the countries which control the nuclear fuel under Nuclear Suppliers Group.
In recent years, there has been renewed and additional interest in thorium because of:
(i) the intrinsic proliferation resistance of thorium fuel cycle due to the presence of 232U
and its strong gamma emitting daughter products,
(ii) better thermo-physical properties and chemical stability of ThO2, as compared to UO2, which ensures better in-pile performance and a more stable waste form,
(iii) lesser long lived minor actinides than the traditional uranium fuel cycle,
(iv) superior plutonium incineration in (Th, Pu)O2 fuel as compared to (U, Pu)O2 and
(v) attractive features of thorium related to accelerated driven system (ADS) and energy
amplifier (EA).
The information on thorium and thorium fuel cycles has been well covered in the IAEATECDOC-1155 (May 2000) and IAEA-TECDOC-1319 (November 2002).
At the end of 2002, some 441 nuclear power plants, with total installed capacity of 358 GW(e), were in operation worldwide, generating some 16% of global electricity. In the reference scenario, the annual average rate of growth of world nuclear capacity is expected to be in the range of 0.9% up to the year 2025 by which time the total installed nuclear power would be some 438 GW(e).
Thorium fuel cycle is very relevant for India for her long-range nuclear power programme since India has abundant thorium reserves and very limited indigenous uranium resources.
The feasibility of thorium utilization in high temperature gas cooled reactors (HTGR), light water reactors (LWR), pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs), liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactors (LMFBR) and molten salt breeder reactors (MSBR) were demonstrated. These activities have been well documented in several extensive reviews and conference proceedings published by US Atomic Energy Commission [WYMER, R.G., “Thorium Fuel Cycle”, Proc. 2nd Int. Symp. on Thorium Fuel Cycle, Ten. USA, 1966, US Atomic Energy Commission (1968)], US Department of Energy [HART, P.E., GRIFFIN, C.W., HSIEH, K.A., MATTEWS, R.B. and WHITE,
G.D., “ThO2-based pellet fuels – their properties, methods of fabrication, and
irradiation performance”, PNL 3064, UC-78, Prepared for US Department of
Energy, Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352 (1979)], [BELLE, J. and BERMAN, R.N., “Thorium Dioxide: Properties and Nuclear Applications”, (Ed.) BELLE, J. and BERMAN, R.N., Naval Reactors Office, US Department of Energy, DOE/NE-0060, DE85 006670, Aug. (1984)], KfA, Germany [NUCLEBRA’S, “German Brazilian Co-operation in Scientific Research and Technological Development on Thorium Utilization in PWRs”, Final Report (1979-1988), Nuclebra’s, Siemens KWU, Nukem and KFA-Juelich, Germany (1988)] and IAEA [INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Utilization of Thorium in Power Reactors, Technical Reports Series No. 52, IAEA, Vienna (1966)]. More recently, the proceedings of IAEA meetings on Thorium Fuel Utilization: Options and Trends has summarized the activities and coordinated research projects (CRP) of IAEA and the status of thorium fuel cycle option, including ADS, in Member States [INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Thorium Fuel Utilization: Options and Trends, IAEA-TECDOC-1319, Vienna (2002)].
In India, large quantities of high density sintered ThO2 pellets have been manufactured at Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) and are being used in: (i) fast breeder test reactor (FBTR) as stainless steel clad blanket pin assemblies and (ii) PHWRs as Zircaloy clad pin assemblies for neutron flux flattening of initial core during start–up. Several R&D activities are underway on (Th, U)O2 and (Th, Pu)O2 fuels containing <5% uranium or plutonium oxide for use in water cooled reactors and (Th, Pu)O2 containing 20–30% PuO2 and 70–80% PuO2 for use in LMFBR with large and small cores respectively. Apart from the classical ‘Powder-Pellet’ route, advanced process flowsheets, based on Sol–Gel Microsphere Pelletization (SGMP) and Impregnation techniques, amenable to automation and remotisation, have been developed for fabrication of ThO2–based mixed oxide pellets of controlled density and microstructure. Essential thermophysical properties of these fuels, including thermal conductivity, co–efficient of thermal expansion and hot hardness (in turn indentation- creep) have been evaluated.
Thorium cycles are feasible in all existing thermal and fast reactors, e.g. LWRs (including WWERs especially WWER–T), PHWRs, HTGRs, MSBRs and LMFBRs and in ADS. In the short term, it should be possible to incorporate the thorium fuel cycle in some of the above existing reactors without major modifications in the engineered systems, reactor control and the reactivity devices. However, for the innovative reactors and fuel cycles, a lot of reactor physics studies and other technological developments would be required before these could be implemented. The proceedings of the Annual Conference of Indian Nuclear Society on “Power from Thorium: Status, Strategies and Directions” held in Mumbai in June 2000 [POWER FROM THORIUM – STATUS, SRATEGIES AND DIRECTIONSINSAC (Proc. Ann. Conf. Mumbai, 2000), INS, Mumbai, India (2000)] and the EURATOM report on Thorium as a Waste Management Option” [THORIUM AS A WASTE MANAGEMENT OPTION, European Commission,EURATOM, EUR 19142 EN (2000)] give a comprehensive review of all aspects of thorium fuels and fuel cycles.
Monazite is a mixed thorium rare earth uranium phosphate, is the most popular source of thorium and is available in many countries in beach or river sands along with heavy minerals–ilmenite, rutile, monazite, zircon, sillimenite and garnet.
Monazite deposits are formed by weathering of parent rock, followed by the gravity concentration of heavy minerals in sand-beds through the actions of wind and water in the coastal areas of tropical countries.
This monazite has chemical formula: (RE/Th/U) PO4
The mixed minerals in placer sands are separated from each other by methods depending up on physical properties i.e., specific gravity, magnetic susceptibility, electrical conductivity and surface properties.
Fig. 15 shows the flowsheet for separating monazite from heavy minerals in beach sands. (MARSHALL, W., “Nuclear Power Technology, Vol. 2: Fuel Cycle”, Press, Oxford (1983) 368-411.) The electrically conductive ilmenite and rutile constituents are first separated using high-tension separator. Next, the non-conducting monazite, which is heavy and moderately magnetic, is isolated from non-magnetic sillimanite and zircon and magnetic garnet by the use of high intensity magnetic separators and air or wet tables. The resulting concentrate contains 98% monazite. (IAEA, 2005, p.46).
The monazite is finely ground and in most countries dissolved in 50–70% sodium hydroxide at ~1400C and subjected to a series of chemical operations, including solvent extraction and ion exchange processes to obtain pure thorium nitrate, which is precipitated in the form of thorium oxalate and subjected to controlled calcinations to obtain ThO2 powder. In India, until recently, the monazite used to be alkali leached, the rare earth used to be separated as mixed chloride and the thorium stored in the form of thorium hydroxide in concrete silos. The hydroxide cake contained around 35% ThO2, 7% rare earth oxide, 0.6% U3O8 and nearly 28% insolubles and moisture. Recently, a project entitled “thorium retrieval, uranium recovery and restorage of thorium oxalate” (THRUST) has been completed for processing monazite in such a manner that all the thorium present is separated in pure thorium oxalate form (99% purity) which is much easier to handle, store and retrieve to prepare mantle grade thorium nitrate or nuclear grade thorium oxide as and when required. In addition, the major fraction of uranium present in monazite is also separated in the form of crude uranium concentrate.
Fig. 16 summarizes the process steps being followed in India for preparation of pure thorium oxalate for long term storage in concrete silos [MUKHERJEE, T.K., “Processing of Indian Monazite for the recovery of thorium and uranium values”, Characterization and Quality Control of Nuclear Fuels (CQCNF-2002), (Proc. Int. Conf., 2002, Hyderabad), Allied Publishers, New Delhi, India (2003).]
The present production of thorium is almost entirely as a by–product of rare earth extraction from monazite sand. Monazite extraction is done in an open pit. (IAEA, 2005, p.7) Monazite is also present in quartz-pebble conglomerates sand stones and in fluviatile and beach placers. Monazite isa primary source of light REE and thorium and a secondary source of phosphate and uranium. The total known world reserves of thorium in the Reasonably Assured Reserves (RAR) and Estimated Additional Reserves (EAR) categories are in the range of 2.23 million tonnes and 2.13 million tonnes respectively as shown in Table 8.
Table 9 summarises the average composition of monazite in different countries of the world [79]. The world’s reserve of monazite is estimated to be in the range of 12 million tonnes of which nearly 8 million tonnes occur with the heavy minerals in the beach sands of India in the States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
Thorium concentrate and nuclear grade ThO2 are produced from monazite by involving the following process steps:
− Extraction and pre-concentration of beach sands.
− Conversion of ore (beach sand concentrates) to monazite.
− Conversion of monazite into thorium concentrate, uranium concentrate and rare earth
− Storage of thorium concentrate in suitable form or conversion of thorium concentrate to nuclear grade ThO2 powder. (IAEA, 2005, p.46).
In India, some 15 metric tonnes of high density ThO2 pellets have so far been manufactured by powder pellet route mostly at Nuclear Fuel Complex(NFC), Hyderabad and to a limited extent at BARC for use in the following research and power reactors :
(a) CIRUS and DHRUVA research reactors at BARC: In the form of Al-clad ‘J’ rods containing ThO2 pellets for CIRUS and as 7–pin cluster containing ThO2 pellets for
DHRUVA. Some 3 tonnes ThO2 pellets have been irradiated in these reactors; (b) PHWRs: In the form of Zircaloy clad 19–element ThO2 bundles for neutron flux flattening of the initial cores of PHWRs during start-up. Each assembly contains around 14 kg of ThO2 pellets. So far, some 7 tonnes of ThO2 pellets have been manufactured for PHWR 220 units. Some 232 nos. of ThO2 bundles have been used in eight PHWR 220 units in Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS 1&2: 70 nos.), Kaiga Atomic Power Station (KGS 1&2: 70 nos) and Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS 3&4: 70 nos. and RAPS 2: 18 nos. after retubing). Initially, four ThO2 bundles were irradiated in Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS), Kalpakkam. (c) LMFBR: In the form of stainless steel 316 clad, ThO2 blanket material for Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) at IGCAR, Kalpakkam. So far, some 5 tonnes of ThO2 pellets have been manufactured and delivered for use as axial and radial blanket assemblies for FBTR. Each radial and axial blanket assemblies contain some 12.25 kg and 4.4 kg of ThO2 pellets respectively. Presently, 54 radial blankets of ThO2 are in FBTR core.
Sinterable grade, high purity ThO2 powder is being supplied by the Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) from their “Monazite Processing and Thorium Plants”. BARC has also played an important role in the initial phase of ThO2 pellet fabrication campaigns. The ThO2 powder is subjected to grinding followed up pre-compaction-granulation, cold pelletization, high temperature sintering in air and centreless grinding. Both MgO and Nb2 O5 dopants were found to enhance the densification of ThO2 pellets. (IAEA, 2005, pp.51-52)
The Indian Minister of State V. Narayanaswamy stated that as of May 2013, the country's thorium reserves were 11.93 million tonnes, with a significant majority (8.59 Mt; 72%) found in the three eastern coastal states of Andhra Pradesh (3.72 Mt; 31%), Tamil Nadu (2.46 Mt; 21%) and Odisha (2.41 Mt; 20%) IANS (14 August 2013). "Over 1.25 MT monazite reserve found in 3 years Over 1.25 MT monazite reserve found in 3 years
A reserve of over 1.25 million tonne of monazite (source of thorium), a radioactive element which is key to the country's nuclear power programme, has been found in the last three-and-a-half years.
In a written reply to a question, he said the total monazite reserve stood at 11.93 MT as on May 2013, while it was 10.68 MT in October 2009.
It is estimated that the recovery rate of thorium from monazite is 9.3%. The 11.93MT of monazite thus equates to 1,323,622 Tonnes.
In India, there has been sustained interest in thorium fuels and fuel cycles because of large deposits of thorium (1,323,622 tonnes) in the form of monazite in beach sands as compared to very modest reserves of low-grade uranium.
- Illegal notification by Govt. of India on Atomic Minerals without amending the Act of Parliament
The Prime Minister, who heads the Department of Atomic Energy, delisted almost all atomic minerals from the prescribed substances list vide Govt. of India Notification SO 61 (E) dated 20 January, 2006.
This Open General License was illegal because the Mother Act which defines the atomic minerals was NOT amended. It is illegal to issue a Notification of OGL without first ensuring that the approval by Parliament for amendment to the Act.
That the illegality was knowingly committed is confirmed by the following letter from VP Raja, Addl. Secy, DAE letter of 2 Feb. 2006 to RK Sharma, Secy. General, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries. In this letter, Addl Secy, DAE clearly states that “This change (of list of atomic minerals or prescribed substances) will become effective only after suitable amendments are carried out to the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulations) Act and passed by Parliament.”:
V.P. Raja, Additional Secretary, Govt. of India, Dept. of Atomic Energy, Anushakti Bhavan, Chhatrapti Shivaji Maharaj Marg, Mumbai 400001
2 Feb. 2006
D.O. No. 7/3(4)/2005-PSU/21
Dear Shri Sharma,
The Departmet of Atomic Energy vide its Notification S.O. 61(E) dated 18th January 2006, which has been gazette on 20th January 2006 has revised the list of Prescribed Substanes, Prescribed Equipment and Technology. This superseded the earlier notifications of the Department on the same subject dated 15th March 1995. A copy of the new notification is enclosed herewith.
Your attention I particular is drawn to Items 0A314 and 0A315 and the note thereunder.
Since this notification will have an impact on industries engaged in beach sand mining, you are kindly requested to bring this to the notice of all your members.
Ilmenite, Rutile, Leucoxene and Zircon will no longer be Prescribed Substances under the Atomic Energy Act with effect from 1st January 2007. Ilmenite, Rutile and Leucoxene will also get shifted from Part ‘B’ of the First Schedule to the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act 1957 to Part ‘C’ of the same Schedule. This change will become effective only after suitable amendments are carried out to the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulations) Act and passed by Parliament. However, Zirconium bearing minerals and ores including zircon will continue to be Atomic Minerals under Part ‘B’ of the First Schedule.
This is being brought to your notice as required under Section 4(2) of Right to Information Act, 2005.
With warm regards,
Yours sincerely,
Sd. V.P. Raja
Encl. As above.
Shri RK Sharma,
Secretary General, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, 301, Bakshi House, 40-41, Nehru Place, New Delhi 110019
Tel. 022 22028328. Fax 022 22048476/22026726. Gram: ATOMERG email:raja@dae.gov.in
Notification by the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy, published in the Gazette of India (extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, sub-section (ii), dated 20th January, 2006).
S.O. 61(E).- In pursuance of clauses (f) and (g) of sub-section (1) of Section 2 and Section 3 of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 (No.33 of 1962) and insupersession of the notifications of the Government of India in the Department of Atomic Energy vide numbers S.O.211 (E) dated the 15th March, 1995 and S.O.212(E) dated the 15th March, 1995, the Central Government hereby notifies the substances, equipment and technology specified in the Schedule appended hereto as Prescribed Substances, Prescribed Equipment and Technology.
…
OA Prescribed substances
Note: Any radioactive material in Category OA shall additionally attract the provisions of the Atomic Energy (Radiation Protection) Rules, 2004 made under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the provisions of Section-16 of the Atomic Energy Act,1962.
…
OA314 *Titanium ores and concentrates (Ilmenite, Rutile and Leucoxene)
OA315 *Zirconium, its alloys and compounds and minerals/concentrates including zircon
*Note: These items (OA314 and OA315) shall remain prescribed substances only till such time the Policy on Exploitation of Beach Sand Minerals notified vide Resolution number 8/1(1)/97-PSU/1422 dated the 6th October, 1998 is adopted/revised/modified by the Ministry of Mines or till the 1st January 2007, whichever occurs earlier and shall cease to be so thereafter.
(It is amazing that the mandatory requirement of the Parliament approval for amending the Act No. 67 of 1957 was NOT stipulated in the Gazette Notification and only mentioned in the D.O. letter of VP Raja.)
In implementing the illegal Govt. of India Notification, DAE also discontinued the pre-existing procedure for issuing ‘Monazite Clearance Certificate’ for every consignment of placer sands transported from the mine orexported.
These two illegalities, 1) issuance of Open General License for almost all Atomic Minerals and 2) discontinuance of Monazite Clearance Certificate has resulted in the illegal mining and export of placer sand minerals from India – at a rapid pace-- since January 2006.
This was also noted by Dr. PK Iyengar in his account on nuclear power situation in India: “There is a complaint that right now the beach sands are being illegally exported from the southern tip of the country, and there is even a court case in Madurai (High Court)…” DAE should be aware of the cases of intercepted consignments containing monazite pending decision in Madurai Bench of Madras High Court. Did these transgressions occur because DAE discontinued the practice of issuing Monazite Clearance Certification for every consignment transported from the mine or exported out of the country?
That this notification was issued knowingly, knowing that Parliament approval was required for changing the list of Atomic Minerals.
This Government Order was thus done only to facilitate their export by private companies, with licenses being granted with the proviso that “having undertaken to comply with the conditions prescribed in the Atomic Energy (Working of mines, minerals hand handling of prescribed substances) Rules, 1984, license is issued with the approval of the Licensing Authority.”
What was the awful hurry to issue the Open General Licence Notification without discussion in Parliament and without Parliament approval?
The date of the notification, 20 January 2006 provides a clue. The date closely follows the agreement reached on 18 July 2005, between President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the Indo-US Nuclear Deal.
Under Nuclear Supplier Group standards and controls, uranium, monazite (thorium), zircon are atomic minerals and exports are subject to rigorous safeguards and controls. How can India violate these standards as it has subjected itself to safeguarded nuclear reactors under the Indo-US Nuclear Deal?
A simple Geiger counter could have detected the illegal consignments of monazite since monazite containing thorium is a radioactive mineral. Have such counters been deployed in the mining areas where placer sands are mined?
Indian Rare Earths Limited was the public sector undertaking under DAE charged with the responsibility of mining and stockpiling the strategic thorium/monazite reserved of the country. Why has this role been diluted by issuing licence to private miners to mine for plaer sands (ilmenite etc.) in Andhra Pradesh coastline which accounts for the largest reserves of 3.72 MT of monazite in the country?
Was it part of the Deal that India would open up her indigenous Atomic Minerals to be cleared and exported out of the country, so that India would perpetually be dependent upon foreign resources for Nuclear Supplies through Nuclear Suppliers Group?
Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (No. 67 of 1957) (As amended upto 10th May, 2012):
…
The First Schedule [See Section 4(3), 5(1), 7(2) and 8(2)]
Part A. Hydro Carbons Energy Minerals
- Coal and Lignite
Part B. Atomic Minerals
1. Beryl and other beryllium-bearing minerals.
2. Lithium-bearing minerals.
3. Minerals of the "rare earths" group containing Uranium and Thorium.
4. Niobium-bearing minerals.
5. Phosphorites and other phosphatic ores containing Uranium.
6. Pitchblende and other Uranium ores.
7. 1
[Titanium bearing minerals and ores (ilmenite, rutile and leucoxene) ]. 8. Tantalum-bearing minerals.
9. Uraniferous allanite, monazite and other thorium minerals.
10. Uranium bearing tailings left over from ores after extraction of copper and gold,
ilmenite and other titanium ores.
11. [Zirconium bearing minerals and ores including zircon.]
Part C. Metallic and non-metallic minerals
…
[Zirconium bearing minerals and ores including zircon.]
IREL of DAE sidelined
- Immediate corrective steps needed to stem the illegal mining of Atomic Minerals
India is a depository of a precious nuclear resource. Thorium sands have accumulated over millennia in places like Manavalakurichi (Tamil Nadu), Aluva, Chavara (Kerala), Vishakapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Puri (Orissa) and Konkan coast (Maharashtra). http://www.apmdc.ap.gov.in/VV%20Minerals.html
Nuclear resources carefully monitored and protected by the International Atomic Energy Agency and a multi-national Nuclear Suppliers' Group.
One such precious resource is thorium which is an atomic mineral. The demand for thorium is set to increase as agencies are work to create thorium-based nuclear power reactors. China, Norway, Canada are at work. A Canadian company has contracts for such reactors in Indonesia and Chile. Norway has started testing thorium as nuclear fuel in one of its existing reactors. China has been actively involved in developing thorium-based nuclear reactors. India started similar work in Bhabha Atomic Energy Agency's Kamini reactor in Kalpakkam.
There are credible and verifiable reports that such a vital resource which constitutes nation's wealth is getting looted. Following a report which appeared in the Statesman, titled the Great Thorium Robbery, it is heartening to note that Tamil Nadu Government has taken the first small step of ordering a special investigation on illegal mining of beach sands in the district of Tuticorin.
For an investigation of illegal mining of thorium sands, the following immediate steps are needed:
- Govt. of India (GOI) should extend the scope of MH Shah Commission which is investigating into illegal mining of Manganese ore to cover the minerals in beach sands of India's coastline.
- National Green Tribunal should be asked to constitute a Special Investigation Team immediately after imposing the nation-wide ban on beach sands mining.
- GOI should order the cancellation of existing mining licenses including licenses for ALL atomic minerals under the Mines and Mining Regulation Act 57 of 1967, cancel the 2006 illegal notification (illegally listing under Open General License some atomic minerals) and entrust the responsibility for mining ONLY to GOI undertaking under DAE, The Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL).
- GOI should immediately provide geiger counters to all port authorities to check on illegal exports of consignments containing minerals like monazite which is an atomic mineral and a radioactive substance.
- GOI should order a joint Army Command to protect and conserve the rich beach sand resources containing atomic minerals to further strengthen the law-enforcement machineries of the State Governments.
- Tamil Nadu government should extend the investigation to other coastal districts of Tamil Nadu -- Tirunelvei and Kanyakumari.
- Govts. of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Orissa and Maharashtra should follow Tamil Nadu's lead and ban illegal mining activities of thorium sands.
- Govt. of Andhra Pradesh should cancel its agreement giving a licence to a private party and ignored the role of IREL in mining atomic mineral containing beach sands of Andhra Pradesh. The responsibility should be handed back to DAE and IREL (a Public Sector Undertaking under DAE). This should be of immediate interest to GOI because of an MOU with Japan which has enabled Toyota Tsusho corporation to set up Rare Earths' separation plant in Andhra Pradesh coastline. It is important to ensure that procedures are in place to ensure that thorium reserves in monazite sands are handed over to DAE.
One estimate made indicates the magnitude of illegal mining of placer sands to be Rs. 96,120 Crores:
Monazite in the silos of Indian Rare Earths Limited, accumulated over decades, are proposed to be handed over to Toyota Tsoshu for exploiting 'rare earths'. What controls exist to ensure that thorium is returned to DAE by the foreign contractor?
Annex1 A Citizens’ Forum details the modus operandi of illegal mining
Annex 2 The Great Thorium Robbery – Special article in The Statesman by Sam Rajappa
Annex1 A Citizens’ Forum details the modus operandi of illegal mining
Copy of V. Sundaram, IAS' letter dated 9 January 2013 to Tmt Sheela Balakrishnan IAS, Chief Secretary to Government of Tamil Nadu.
9-January-2013
Dear Thirumati Sheela Balakrishnan,
I am forwarding a copy of my DO Letter dated 7-January-2013, which I have sent to Thiru N.S Palaniappan IAS,Principal Secretary to Government of Tamil Nadu in the Industries Department, which speaks for itself. I request you to take immediate action in the matter to protect and safeguard the rare invaluable atomic minerals in the coastal areas of Southern Tamil Nadu.
As you can see from this letter, I have furnished exact and elaborate details regarding the large-scale loot of rare atomic minerals in the coastal areas of Southern Tamil Nadu being done with impunity and contempt for the Rule of Law, by one Vaikuntarajan of M/s V.V. Minerals and its Associated companies with the full connivance of the Geology Department, Revenue Department and Police Department. Almost all the District Collectors during the last 10 years (barring 2 or 3 spectacular and well-known exceptions), have been extending their full official co-operation, willingly or otherwise, to this known Mafia Don. Not only the State Government Departments but also all the concerned Departments of Government of India, like the Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Mines, Department of Environment and Forests have been extending their full cooperation to this unscrupulous and murderous Mafia Don in all his gigantic illicit mining and looting operations connected with extraction of Garnet, Ilmenite, Rutile, Zircon and other precious and strategic minerals.
The canker of corruption has eaten into the vitals of Public Administration at all levels in Tamil Nadu. Any rich and unscrupulous businessman can purchase any illegal Order by paying a bribe. When you see that in order to trade or produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce NOTHING --- when you see that ill gotten favours flow to those who deal not in goods but in favours --- When you see that men get richer by GRAFTING GRAFT upon the Government or by PULL than by honest work and our LAWS don’t protect you against them but protect them against you --- when you see that CORRUPTION ON STILTS is being rewarded and MANLY HONESTY is becoming a derided self-sacrifice, then you can declare from rooftops that your Country is DOOMED.
However, fortunately, for Tamil Nadu and for the rest of India, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Selvi J. Jayalalithaa, with great perspicacity and sagacity, has shown the way to the entire country by putting down large-scale loot of granite wealth by M/s PRP Granites in Madurai District. I have no doubt that if proper facts are placed before our dynamicChief Minister, then she would take immediate action on a war footing to put down the large-scale illicit mining depredations being carried on by the Mafia Don Vaikuntarajan in the coastal areas of Southern Tamil Nadu. I am of the view that once this matter is brought to the personal attention of our fearless Chief Minister, the Mafia Don Vaikuntarajan will meet the same sorry end as the mining gangster PRP Palanisami of M/s PRP Granites in Madurai District.
With warm regards and
Seasons Greetings,
Yours Sincerely,
V. SUNDARAM IAS (retd.)
To,
Thirumati Sheela Balakrishnan IAS
Chief Secretary,
Government of Tamil Nadu
Fort St George, Chennai 600 009.
Copy of V. Sundaram, IAS' detailed letter dated 7 January 2013 to Thiru N.S Palaniappan IAS, PrincipalSecretary to Government of Tamil Nadu in the Industries Ministry.
7-1-2013
Dear Thiru Palaniappan,
My Seasons Greetings to you for a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2013.
Citizens’ Welfare and Grievances Redressal Forum is a Registered Public Body rendering free service to the innocent, helpless and poor citizens and also the other harassed citizens. I am the Managing Trustee of this body and we are waging a war simultaneously against both abysmal poverty and abhorrent corruption at all levels of public administration. Thiru V. Kalyanam, formerly Personal Secretary to Mahatma Gandhi from 1943 to 1948 and formerly Personal Secretary to Lady Mountbatten in 1950 and later Secretary to Rajaji in 1959 is a Trustee of our Forum.
Article 51A of the Indian Constitution has clearly listed the Fundamental Duties of citizens. Every responsible Government Servant and every responsible citizen must be aware of this Article of the Constitution and is expected to follow it in letter and spirit. Bowing in reverential obedience to Article 51A of the Indian Constitution, I consider it my sacred and bounden duty to bring the following facts to your kind notice for immediate action to protect the strategic Atomic Mineral wealth of the country in the Districts of Thoothukudi, Thirunelveli and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.
I invite your kind attention to my DO Letter dated 6-7-2012 addressed to Dr Sundaradevan IAS, your predecessor in office. I am enclosing a copy of that DO Letter, which is self explanatory, for your immediate reference (Please see Annexure – A to this Letter). In that Letter I had invited the kind attention of Dr Sundaradevan to the gigantic loot
and robbery of rare and precious atomic minerals taking place in the coastal areas of Thoothukudi, Thirunelveli and Kanya Kumari Districts in Tamil Nadu. I had indicated that this private loot is being done on an almost monopolistic basis by one family owning several companies.
I invite your kind attention to Page No: 2 of the popular Tamil Daily ‘DINAMALAR’ issue dated 1-1-2013 in which they have reported in great detail about the loot of precious atomic minerals like Garnet in M.Kalathur Village in Thottiyam Taluk in S.F. 391/3A1, 391/3B, 392/1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. In this DINAMALAR Report, it has been stated that M/s Nexus Corporate, a company with its Headquarters in Palayamkottai in Thirunelveli District, is constructing a factory building WITHOUT ANY AUTHORIZATION FROM THE CONCERNED AUTHORITIES. I am enclosing a copy of PAGE 2 of the DINAMALAR newspaper dated 1-1-2013 (Please see Annexure – B to this Letter). I request you to take appropriate action in this matter.
I understand that M/s Nexus Corporate is a Partnership Firm jointly owned by one V. Subramaniam, S/o Thiru S. Vaikuntarajan, owner of M/s V.V Minerals and many other Associated companies in Thoothukudi, Thirunelveli and Kanyakumari Districts AND one J. Muthurajan s/o S. Jegatheesan (younger brother of S. Vaikuntarajan). I am enclosing a copy of the concerned Partnership Deed dated 11-March-2010 (Please see Annexure – C to this Letter).
In this context I invite your kind attention to the ‘PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMISSIONER OF GEOLOGY AND MINING i/c GUINDY, CHENNAI 600 032’, ‘PRESENT : THIRU ATUL ANAND, I.A.S.
Proc. No. 6251 / MM7/ 2010 dated 17-06-2011 (Please see Annexure – D to this Letter) in which Orders have been issued placing an extent of 3.25 Hectares of Patta Lands in M.Kalathur Village in Thottiyam Taluk in Thiruchirapalli District has been leased out to M/s Nexus Corporate. This Partnership Firm was able to get its Final Precise Area Communication Orders issued in a record time of 72 days. This Firm submitted its Application only on 5-April-2010 and succeeded in getting Final Precise Area Communication Orders issued by the Commissioner of Geology and Mining, Guindy on 22-June-2010 (vide. RC No. 6251 / MM7 / 2010). What is most intriguing is that several other Private Companies who had submitted their Applications for Mining Leases as early as in April 1993 are still kept waiting and pending in spite of specific Time-bound Orders issued by the High Court from 2000 onwards to dispose of all Mining Lease Applications on merit as per Law without any delay.
I AM MENTIONING THIS ONLY TO HIGHLIGHT THE FACT THAT M/S V.V. MINERALS AND THEIR ASSOCIATE COMPANIES ARE ALWAYS GIVEN A KNOCK-DOWN PRIORITY IN RESPECT OF ALL THEIR APPLICATIONS. What makes that Business Group the MOST FAVOURED CHILD of the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Government of India can only be verified by the CBI in New Delhi and the Special Branch (CID) of the Tamil Nadu Police!
I am also enclosing copies of 2 of my emails dated 7th November 2012 (Please see Annexure – E to this Letter) and 8th November 2012 (Please see Annexure – F to this Letter) addressed to Dr R.K Sinha, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in Mumbai. They are self explanatory. I have marked copies of these e-mails to the Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Mines, the Central Vigilance Commissioner, the Director of the CBI and above all the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. In my e-mail dated 8th of November 2012, I have invited the attention of Dr Sinha to the Gigantic Loot of Rs 96,120 Crores worth of rich Atomic Minerals carried on with the full connivance of all the Government of India and State Government servants, by a Private Mining Company called M/s V.V. Minerals in Thirunelveli District during the last decade.
The PIONEER Newspaper in New Delhi, in an explosive Editorial titled ‘MINERAL WEALTH LOOTED, Government Must Stop Illegal Export of Thorium’ in their issue dated 15th December 2012 (Please see Annexure – G to this Letter) has stated as follows: “The beach sand mining cartel in Tamil Nadu is owned by a local businessman who owns 96 out of 111 Garnet mining licences, and all 44 licences to mine Ilmenite, among others. Interestingly, in 2006 most of the heavy minerals found in beach sands, such as Ilmenite, Garnet, Zircon and Rutile were removed from the ‘Atomic Minerals’ list. Consequently, minerals that could previously only be mined by one Public Sector Undertaking --- INDIAN RARE EARTHS LIMITED --- have now become available to private mining agencies.”
The Pioneer Newspaper in the Editorial mentioned above is referring to the 100 % monopoly enjoyed by M/s V.V Minerals and their Associates in the field of exploitation of Ilmenite and 77 % monopoly in the field of exploitation of Garnet. (For fuller details relating to the ownership percentages of Mining Leases in Tamil Nadu, please refer to the Exact Data furnished in the Paragraph given below)
In my e-mail dated 7th November 2012, addressed to Dr R.K Sinha, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in Mumbai, I have invited his attention to the nefarious manner in which rare minerals, such as Ilmenite, Garnet, Zircon and Rutile, found in beach sands were removed from the ‘Atomic Minerals’ List by a functionary of the Department of Atomic Energy. THIS WAS DONE WITHOUT THE NECESSARY PRIOR APPROVAL OF THE PARLIAMENT.
This issue of removal of Ilmenite, Zircon and Rutile were removed from the ‘Atomic Minerals’ List was raised in the Rajya Sabha by Thiru Venkaiya Naidu MP and other opposition MP’s. I am enclosing Copies of the Reports which appeared in THE PIONEER Newspaper on 10-December-2012 (Please see Annexure – H to this Letter) and 14-December-2012 (Please see Annexure – I to this Letter).
I have checked up the facts relating to the ownership pattern of Mining Leases of Garnet, Ilmenite, and Rutile in Tamil Nadu by accessing exact Information under the RTI Act. The following Table reveals a very shocking picture of patently discriminatory and one-sided favouritism shown to a Private Company, M/s V.V. Minerals and their Associates.
S. No.
Lessee Group Garnet, Ilmenite, Rutile etc Details of
MINING LEASES ONLY Garnet
MINING LEASES
Nos. Percentage
of ownership Nos. Percentage
of ownership
1 M/s V.V Minerals and their Associates 45 100 %
MONOPOLY 24 77 %
2 OTHERS NIL 0 % 7 23 %
GRAND TOTAL 45 31
I invite your kind attention to a very important News Report which appeared in the DHINAMALAR Tamil Daily dated 3-January-2013. I am enclosing a copy of this News Item in DHINAMALAR (Please see Annexure – J to this Letter). You can see from this Report that the MADURAI BENCH OF MADRAS HIGH COURT on 2-January-2013 HAS ISSUED A NOTICE to the Vigilance Commissioner, Director CBI, Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Mines asking them to Show Cause as to why no action has been initiated by these High Functionaries against Thiru S. Vaikuntarajan of M/s V.V. Minerals for his open public admission relating to bribing Public Servants in the Government of India at various levels for getting Environmental Clearances. This Mafia Don made his brazen ‘heroic’ confession at an Official Meeting of the CAPEXIL Meeting held on 12.11.2010 at SAVERA HOTEL, CHENNAI IN THE PRESENCE OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE PROCESSED MINERALS AND ITS MEMBERS BY OPENLY DECLARING THAT HE HAS BEEN PURCHASING THE ENVIRONMENT CLEARANCES FROM THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT.
I will be failing in my public duty as a former Collector of the un-bifurcated District of Thirunelveli, First Chairman of Thoothukudi Port Trust, former Rural Development Secretary, former Food and Consumer Protection Secretary, former PWD Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu, if I do not invite your kind attention to the nefarious and criminal activities of Vaikuntarajan of M/s V.V. Minerals and Associated Companies like large-scale gigantic illicit Mining, Export and Local Sales of rare and precious minerals like Ilmenite, Garnet, Zircon and Rutile, to the tune of Rs 96,120 Crores, raping the Mother Earth on hundreds of hectares of poromboke and patta lands in the coastal areas of Southern Tamil Nadu, that too within the NATIONAL MARINE PARK. The Revenue Department in these Districts has given thousands of Acres of public lands to Vaikuntarajan almost free of cost. In any other country such an act of crime by the public servants would have been dealt with severely under the LAW.
I am enclosing copies of 2 of the Orders issued by the Tehsildar of Radhapuram (Please see Annexures – K & L to this Letter). You can see in Annexure - K an extent of 34.35.0 Hectares of very valuable Poromboke land (with very valuable mineral deposits like Garnet, Ilmenite, Zircon and Rutile) in Irukkanthurai Village has been given on Lease to M/s V.V Minerals by the Tehsildar of Radhapuram Taluk in Thirunelveli District on 31-5-1996 for an Annual Lease value of Rs 16.74/= per Annum !! Likewise, You can see in Annexure - L an extent of 20.40.5 Hectares of very valuable Poromboke land (with very valuable mineral deposits like Garnet, Ilmenite, Zircon and Rutile) in Irukkanthurai Village has been given on Lease to M/s V.V Minerals by the Tehsildar of Radhapuram Taluk in Thirunelveli District on 14-1-1999 for an Annual Lease value of Rs 9.59/= per Annum !!! Is it possible for any average person in Radhapuram to get 34.35.0 or 20.40.5 Hectares of Poromboke land on Lease for a Lease value of Rs 16.74/= per Annum and Rs 9.59/= per Annum, respectively? If this is not public looting of Government lands officially permitted by the Tehsildar of Radhapuram and graciously overlooked by the Sub Collector / RDO at the Divisional Level and the DRO and District Collector at the District Level, then what is it? This calls for criminal investigation to be ordered by the Chief Minister to protect and safeguard Government Lands being cornered by Mafia Dons like Vaikuntarajan.
Regarding the special CRIMINAL favours shown to Vaikuntarajan by the Tehsildars, RDOs / Sub Collectors, DROs and District Collectors of Thirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanyakumari Districts in interminable succession during the last 15 years, I would be sending a separate and more detailed Report for appropriate and corrective action by the Government of Tamil Nadu.
Under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 only MANUAL MINING IS PERMITTED. Vaikuntarajan of M/s V.V Minerals has never believed in observing any of the Rules / Regulations under the above Act or for that matter any other Act. With supreme contempt for the Rule of Law, he has been using only the Tracked POCLAIN Excavator and other heavy Earth Moving machineries for all his illicit Mining operations with the full knowledge and co-operation of the officers of the State Government and the Government of India at all levels. In particular the criminal role played by the Department of Geology and Mining in the Government of Tamil Nadu has to be noted for stringent action against the concerned officers for having permitted gross and repetitive violations of the major provisions of the above Act with contempt and impunity by Mafia Don Vaikuntarajan.
I am forwarding a copy of the Circulars issued by the Chief Controller of Mines, Nagpur, in the Government of India for your kind reference and perusal (Please see Annexure – M to this Letter). You can see that only Manual Mining is permitted in these Circulars.
I have sent more than 1,500 Letters to various public authorities and I have obtained several formidable public documents from the many State and Central Departments under Right to Information Act 2005. These will serve as irrefutable evidence to prove that very serious offences (Please see Annexure – N to this Letter) have been deliberately committed by several State and Central Government servants at various levels to illegally and unlawfully favour M/s. V.V. Minerals and their Associates in total violation of not only the relevant Central Government Acts and Rules relating to Mines and Minerals, Atomic Energy, Environmental Protection but also Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Indian Constitution relating to FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF ALL CITIZENS.
Finally, I wish to bring it to bring it to the notice of the duly constituted Tamil Nadu State Government that VAIKUNTARAJAN IS RUNNING A PARALLEL, ILLEGAL, BRUTAL AND MURDEROUS PRIVATE GOVERNMENT IN THE COASTAL AREAS OF SOUTHERN TAMIL NADU HAVING HIS OWN PRIVATE SECURITY AND CHECK POSTS. Most of the terrorized and humiliated functionaries of the Revenue, Police, Geology and Mining, Commercial Taxes Departments of the State Government and the Customs and Central Excise, Income Tax, Atomic Energy, Mines, Environment and Forests Departments in the Government of India seem to be in the regular unofficial ‘private pay’ of this Mafia Don who can only be described as an AL CAPONE OF TAMIL NADU. I am enclosing a Note on the historic Al Capone to explain the lethal significance of this AL CAPONE OF TAMIL NADU (Please see Annexure – O to this Letter).
Under the visionary and dynamic leadership of Selvi J. Jayalalithaa, Honourable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu stern action has been taken and is being taken to put down corruption in the field of Granite Mining. Now the time has come to put down the gigantic fraud taking place in the field of mining of rare and precious Minerals in the coastal Districts of Tamil Nadu. The poor common millions of Tamil Nadu are applauding and hailing the Honourable Chief Minister for having shown the political and administrative will to put down HIMALAYAN CORRUPTION in the field of granite mining. The myriad millions of Tamil Nadu are eagerly awaiting the immediate personal intervention of Selvi J. Jayalalithaa, Honourable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to get themselves liberated from the vicious and cruel clutches of a mafia don like Vaikuntarajan.
Thanking you,
Yours Sincerely
V. SUNDARAM IAS (retd.)
To,
Thiru N.S PALANIAPPAN IAS
PRINCIPAL SECRETARY TO
GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU
Fort St George, Chennai 600 009.
Annexures to the Thorium Petition:
Annex A
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Annex B
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http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142445241/Annexure-C
Annexure 'C'
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142445462/Annexure-D Annexure 'D' http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142445527/Annexure-E Annexure 'E' http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142445628/Annexure-F Annexure 'F' Annex G![]()
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142445859/Thorium-Petition-Annex-H-(January-2013)Annexure 'H' Annex I ![]()
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http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142446241/Annexure-K Annexure 'K' http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142446317/Annexure-L Annexure 'L' http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142446355/Annexure-M Annexure 'M' http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142446385/Annexure-N Annexure 'N' http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142446871/Letter-to-DrRajagopalaln-10-Jan13 Letter to Dr.Rajagopalaln 10 Jan'13 http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142446876/Letter-to-Shri-Khwaja-10-Jan13 Letter to Shri Khwaja 10 Jan'13 http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142446880/Letter-to-Shri-Pradeep-Kumar-10-Jan13 Letter to Shri Pradeep Kumar 10 Jan'13 The two-part special article by Sam Rajappa on Great Thorium Robbery is an eye-opener. Rajappa should be complimented for a well-researched, well-documented, incisive analysis of the importance of thorium for India's nuclear weapons and energy future. This wealth of the nation should not be allowed to be squandered away by incompetence in governance. A Strategic Nuclear Fuel Control Authority should work with a Joint Army Command to protect, conserve and use the resource of monazite, ilmenite, zircon, rutile, placer sands for national interest. Stop the loot. Stay in Command of what Mother Earth has blessed India with. Is there any hope UPA-II will get tough and bring culprit looters and those indulging in illegal exports to book? The time has come even for a silent government to become active and respond effectively and decisively to the catch great thorium robbers and to prevent future such robberies.
Kalyanaraman
special article
1 September 2012
Doomed UPA~II
In The Name Of God, Resign And Go
Sam Rajappa
As Shakespeare had said in Julius Caesar:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood leads to fortune,
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and miseries.
THE UPA II government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has missed the tide. By continually taking unjust decisions, depriving the needy of justice and robbing the poor of their rights, he has lost the right to preside over the destiny of India. His continuance in office can only add to the miseries of the people. In the ongoing coal scandal, the question one should ask is what made the Prime Minister cling to the coal portfolio for so long almost as if there was a dearth of talent in his jumbo Council of Ministers and that he did not have enough responsibility without poking his nose into allotment of coal blocks. No Prime Minister before him has coveted coal in quite the same manner.
His explanation that coal blocks were given at subsidised price to private companies so that the common man could get electricity, cement and steel at a reasonable price is an insult added to the injury inflicted on people groaning under the weight of price rise of these items. Cement price has scaled such Himalayan heights in the last few years that building a shelter has become out of bounds for the common man. Steel price is not lagging far behind. As far as electricity is concerned, the less said the better.
Giving away coal blocks to those not equipped to mine and keeping the black gold in mother earth was a definite ploy to create a power crisis to prepare the ground for signing the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement and importing foreign nuclear reactors to generate electricity at huge cost to the exchequer.
Coal is a national asset. Indira Gandhi nationalised the coal industry in 1973 and put an end to profiteering by private mine owners, and stabilised its price for the common good. During Prime Minister PV Narasinha Rao’s time, Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister paved the way for its privatisation in 1993 and opened the floodgates of corruption.
When the UPA came to power in 2004, Sibu Soren was allotted the coal portfolio. On his getting arrested in a murder case, Manmohan Singh took over the portfolio. As charges of corruption mounted, he assured Parliament in 2006 that all future allotment would be done through competitive bidding. The Law Ministry advised that the change could be brought about by an administrative order, but the Prime Minister routed for an amendment to the Mines and Minerals Act to play for time and obtained second opinion from the Law Ministry to suit his plan.
Ministers are there to oblige the Prime Minister. Did he not obtain legal opinion of HR Bharadwaj, former Union Law Minister, before de-freezing Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi’s London bank account into which part of Bofors kickback was remitted? Even six years after Manmohan Singh’s assurance in Parliament, the proposed amendment to the Coal Act has not seen the light of day. Meanwhile, allotment to crony capitalists has continued.
While the Comptroller and Auditor-General assessed the windfall gains to the coal block allottees at Rs 1.86 lakh crore, official records in the Coal Ministry tell a different story. Between 1993 and 2010, 184 mines had been allotted to favoured private parties and a total of 21,531.32 million tonnes of coal had been taken out. The average sale price during this period was Rs 2,500 per tonne. The cost of exploitation, including a profit margin of 25 per cent, worked out to Rs 1,250 per tonne. By this calculation, the presumptive loss to the government is about Rs 27 lakh crore.
If the government’s policy not to auction coal blocks was to speed up industrialisation, one could understand. But that was not the case. It was to leave the coal in the ground until Manmohan Singh’s goal of a Indo-US Nuclear Agreement was signed and precious thorium, the future fuel of nuclear energy, was bartered away for a mess of pottage.
Thorium is the future fuel cycle to produce long-term nuclear energy with low radio-toxicity waste. There has always been a strong incentive for the development of thorium fuels and fuel cycles because of large deposits of this precious mineral in the form of monazite in the country’s beach sands compared to the very modest uranium reserves. Thorium cycles are feasible in all existing thermal and fast reactors without major modifications in the engineering systems, reactor control and the reactivity devices. The proceedings of the annual conference of Indian Nuclear Society on “Power from thorium: status, strategies and directions,” held in Mumbai in June 2000, and the EURATOM report on thorium as a waste management option, give a comprehensive review of all aspects of thorium fuels and fuel cycles.
Former President Abdul Kalam has been stressing the importance of India pursuing the thorium fuels route for its nuclear power plants instead of going with a begging bowl to the USA and the Nuclear Supplier Group countries to fuel the existing 17 nuclear reactors based on enriched uranium, and accept their conditionalities which are detrimental to our national interests. The moment India tries another Pokhran-type peaceful nuclear explosion, the Nuclear Supplier Group would not only stop supplying enriched uranium but also remove past supplies from the 17 running reactors in the country and bring them to a grinding halt.
Thanks to our nuclear isolation prior to signing the Indo-US Agreements, scientists at BARC developed a research fast breeder reactor using thorium as fuel and it has been functioning at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, 60 km from Chennai, for the last 27 years. Based on the experience gained, work began on a 500 MW fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam which should have been commissioned in 2010 but the UPA government is more interested in importing highly risky uranium based nuclear reactors from foreign countries and going slow on the indigenous technology.
Explaining the salient features of the indigenously built 500 MW thorium fuelled reactor, SC Chetal, director of IGCAR, said that it would breed more fuel than it consumes. Thorium is rated as a clean fuel because of its low radio-toxicity. The long term sustainability of the indigenous nuclear power programme in India depends to a great extent on large-scale utilisation of the vast thorium resources for breeding uranium and recycling the same in self-sustaining closed fuel cycle in thermal breeder reactors.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, in a publication titled “Thorium fuel cycle ~ Potential benefits and challenges,” dated May 2005, says that research studies have shown that thorium-based fuels “do have several characteristics in the tight pitch lattice designs such as a more negative void coefficient, a high fuel conversion ratio, improved non-proliferation characteristics and a reduced production of long lived radio-toxic wastes than corresponding uranium based fuels.”
The Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) project of the US Department of Energy has developed an innovative fuel matrix consisting of thorium. Japan is pursuing research and design activities on innovative thorium-based hydride fuels for advanced Minor Actinides and plutonium burners with high-safety characteristics. Both countries are mopping up all available thorium from India. The high degree of chemical stability and low solubility of thorium make irradiated thorium-based fuels attractive as waste forms for direct geological disposal.
Therefore, conserving and protecting thorium reserves has the potential to catapult India as the world’s pre-eminent nuclear energy producer. India’s proven scientific talent in fast breeder reactors using thorium to breed plutonium with dual uses should form an integral part of the country’s nuclear doctrine rather than the country remaining a supplicant of the Nuclear Supplier Group.
http://thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=421905&catid=38Special Article
2 September 2012
Doomed UPA~II
The Great Thorium Robbery
Sam Rajappa
Since the UPA government assumed office in 2004 with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, 2.1 million tones of monazite, equivalent to 195,300 tonnes of thorium at 9.3 per cent recovery, has disappeared from the shores of India. Thorium is a clean nuclear fuel of strategic importance for both nuclear energy generation and nuclear-tipped missiles. The beaches of Orissa Sand Complex, Manavalakurichi in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and the Aluva-Chavara belt on the Kerala coast have been identified under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, as the main monazite bearing areas in the country. In most other countries, thorium reserves are embedded in rocks which require elaborate processing to extract. Public sector Indian Rare Earths Limited having divisions at Chatrapur in Orissa, Manavalakurichi in Tamil Nadu, Chavara and Aluva, and its own research centre in Kollam in Kerala, is the only institution authorised to extract thorium from monazite sands. If the Comptroller and Auditor-General were to audit the accounts of the IREL and the Department of Atomic Energy, custodians of fissile minerals, the coalgate scam would look like small change. The missing thorium, conservatively estimated at $100 a tonne, works out to about Rs 48 lakh crore, putting all other UPA scams in the shade.
To a question by Kodikunnel Suresh addressed to the Prime Minister in the Lok Sabha on 30 November 2011, about the quantum of monazite being exported to other countries and whether the companies mining beach sand have violated the norms of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, V Narayanaswamy, Minister of State in the PMO, said that beach sands containing heavy minerals barring monazite were being exported. However, he said that licence under the Atomic Energy Act was required for the export of monazite and thorium which were prescribed substances, and that no licence was given for the export of these items. The Department of Atomic Energy, directly under Manmohan Singh, delisted heavy minerals like monazite and ilmenite from the prescribed substances list vide SO 61 (E) dated 20 January, 2006, to facilitate their export by private companies. Licences have been issued with the proviso that “having undertaken to comply with the conditions prescribed in the Atomic Energy (Working of mines, minerals hand handling of prescribed substances) Rules, 1984, licence is issued with the approval of the Licensing Authority.”
The Licencing Authority is the Nagpur-based Chief Controller of Mines, under the Union Ministry of Mines. Ever since CP Ambrose, Chief Controller of Mines, an upright officer, retired on 30 June 2008, the post has been deliberately kept open and Ranjan Sahai, Controller of Mines, Central Zone, alleged to be close to private placer mineral industrialists, has been allowed to officiate in place of the Chief Controller. Four years is a long time to keep a key post of crucial, strategic and vital importance vacant. Sahai is said to be the most favoured public functionary of the Union Ministry of Mines working in the field, enjoying dictatorial clout with all officials in the ministry. Several written public complaints against Sahai are pending with the Central Vigilance Commissioner, New Delhi. It is reliably learnt that the Departmental Promotion Committee has already selected an officer working in Nagpur to fill the post of Chief Controller of Mines but his appointment is being prevented by Sahai. Such is his clout in the Ministry of Mines.
According to K Balachandran of the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, DAE, commercial exploitation of beach sand in India dates back to 1909 when Schomberg, a German chemist, was exploring for monazite occurrences in search of thorium for the gas mantles industry. After the German, the French, who understood the value of thorium, began buying beach sand from Kerala and exporting it to their country. From this starting point many milestones have been crossed with the discovery of ilmenite, rutile, garnet, zircon and sillimanite in our beach sands. When the Department of Atomic Energy was established in the early days of independence, one of the first decisions Prime Minister Nehru took was to ban the export of thorium. India is reputed to have the largest mineral sands resources in the world. These are also among the least exploited resources having a high potential to meet the country’s energy needs. Seventy per cent of India energy is met by import of oil and gas. The beach placer mining sector was opened to private entrepreneurs in 1998. Export of beach sands registered a quantum jump after 2005. As if to promote exports, even radioactive minerals, much needed for our nuclear energy programme, are allowed to be taken out of the country unchecked. To add insult to injury, private exporters of prohibited minerals are presented with Special Awards and Certificates of Merit by the Chemicals and Allied Products Export Promotion Council of the Government of India. Indiscriminate mining, if not monitored and regulated, can cause severe erosion in the coastal areas.
At least now the government should exclude thorium producing placer minerals like monazite, ilmenite, rutile, zircon, and mineral complexes together with uranium minerals from the purview of privatisation under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, and the Indian Atomic Energy Act, 1948. These resources should be specified in the Central List of Part XI of the Constitution. The Mines Act should be amended with a mandate for the setting up of a Mines Regulatory Authority on the lines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority or the Insurance Regulatory Authority in order to ensure that any complex minerals which have the potential to produce thorium is not allowed to be mined and conserved with provisos for extraction and delivery of processed thorium to the agencies of the Atomic Energy Commission. Considering the strategic importance, select thorium bearing areas should be declared as exclusive zones and brought under the security cover of the Army, Navy and the Air Force. The civil administration has proved incapable of handling this responsibility. All private trade, both internal and external, in thorium producing placer mineral complexes should be banned and the entire thorium extracted so far should be brought under the control of the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency. The CBI should investigate illegal mining of thorium resources and bring the culprits to book expeditiously. Since local communities constitute the first line of defence to ensure protection and conservation of the strategic reserves; they should be given a substantial share of the mining profits. To ensure that the distribution of such share reaches the beneficiaries, the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency should pass on the amount to the Panchayati Raj institutions in the mining areas.
As Shashi Tharoor, former Minister of State for External Affairs, said at a recent book release function: “Good governance transcends all administrative frontiers. It requires politicians to recognise the importance of working together for a common goal.” The UPA government has been squandering Bharat Mata’s gift of nature for private greed and proved in the last eight years that it is incapable of providing good governance. The greatest service Manmohan Singh could do to the nation before another scam even bigger than the great thorium robbery surfaces is to resign and go. Surely we have had enough of his leadership.
(Concluded)
http://thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=422057&catid=38
Sonia Gandhi is presently receiving medical treatment in America, where the law required the summons to be served in person.
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Members of the IC
Air Force Intelligence
Army Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency
Coast Guard Intelligence
The Coast Guard became a member of the Intelligence Community Dec. 28, 2001.
Defense Intelligence Agency
Department of Energy
Department of Homeland Security
Department of State
Department of the Treasury
Drug Enforcement Administration
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Marine Corps Intelligence
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
National Reconnaissance Office
National Security Agency/Central Security Service
Navy Intelligence
Top-secret U.S. intelligence files show new levels of distrust of Pakistan
Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI, which former officials said has totaled tens of millions of dollars. The documents do show that the CIA has developed sophisticated means of assessing the loyalties of informants who have helped the agency find al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan’s tribal region.