India Has World's Largest Thorium Reserves, So Why Can't We Use It As A Source Of Clean Energy?

India Has World's Largest Thorium Reserves, So Why Can't We Use It As A Source Of Clean Energy?

Nearly 65 per cent of the electricity in India is generated in thermal power plants, where India utilises its large coal resources. According to estimates, India produces 22 percent electricity from hydroelectric power plants and only 3 per cent electricity, at present comes from nuclear power plants. This is despite having 21 operational nuclear power plants across the country. The rest 10 per cent is generated with the help of alternate resources like solar, wind, biomass etc.

PTI

Much like India uses coal in its thermal power plants; it can use Thorium as an alternate fuel for Uranium in its nuclear power plants.

India has one of the largest reserves of thorium

According to the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), a constituent Unit of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), India has 10.70 million tonnes of Monazite which contains 9,63,000 tonnes of Thorium Oxide (ThO2).

India's thorium deposits, estimated at 360,000 tonnes, far outweigh its natural uranium deposits at 70,000 tonnes. The country's thorium reserves make up 25 per cent of the global reserves. It can easily be used as a fuel to cut down on the import of Uranium from different countries.

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According to former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman and ex-secretary Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) M.R. Srinivasan, the currently known Indian Thorium reserves can result in the generation of 358,000 gigawatt-year (GWe-yr) of electrical energy and can easily meet the energy requirements during the next century and beyond. India has been processing monazite, and enough thorium has been stockpiled for the future use.

India’s Uranium imports since 2008

Ever since India accessed to the global nuclear fuel market in 2008, the country has been one of the major nuclear fuel buyers. India imports most of the required Uranium from countries including Russia, Kazakhstan, and France and lately the deal with Canada and Australia have further enhanced India’s avenues to get Uranium from overseas.

If estimates are to be believed, nearly 5,559 metric tonnes of uranium has been imported by India from different countries since 2008. With the help of 21 reactors currently operational, India produces around 3 per cent of total power generated with a maximum capacity of 6,000 MW.

In 12th Five-Year-Plan (2012-17), Nuclear Power Plants failed to deliver

Due to disturbed supply of Uranium from different countries, India’s nuclear power plants haven’t been able to deliver the projected amount of electricity. According to the ministry of power’s executive summary published in 2016, India has set a target of producing 88,537 MW of power from all three major sources. But by January 2016, when the reports came out, India could only produce a total of 74,535.72 MW of electricity.

And the contribution of nuclear power plants was least as it failed to achieve even 50 per cent of the target in first four years of the 12th Five Year Plan.

Reuters

Against the target of the production of 5,300 MW in five years, by January 2016, only 1,000 MW of power was produced in all nuclear power plants combined.

Is Uranium concentrate used directly in reactors?

No. Uranium extracted from the ore is first stored as uranium oxide concentrate, better known as yellow cake, when is then enriched into Uranium-235 isotope, a fuel that can be put as pellets in the nuclear fuel assembly.

So can thorium be used directly in reactors?

No. Thorium too would go through a three stage process which would convert it into Uranium-233 and only then it can be put into reactor assembly.

What’s that process and how far is India from reaching there?

Much like uranium, thorium is also a fertile substance, but not a fissile substance by itself. It requires work to make a usable in a nuclear reactor. The process through which Thorium can be made usable in the reactor is a three stage process.

AFP

“It starts with using Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) and light water reactors to convert natural uranium to plutonium. Next the neutrons from plutonium breed U-233 from Thorium. The final stage, Advanced Heavy Water reactors burn U-233 with Thorium, and about 66 per cent of power is generated from Thorium fission,” states report submitted by Pranjal Bordia in Stanford University in 2012.

At present, India is far from taking benefits of the large reserves of Thorium as it hasn’t yet developed the mechanism through which Thorium can be processed and made usable to put into the reactor.

Reuters

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), however, is working on the research and development of the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR), a Thorium fuel based vertical pressure tube type, heavy water moderated and boiling light water cooled reactor. The development of this reactor with a likely capacity of 300 MWe is in final stages.

So, with the presence of Thorium in India in quite a big amount, isn't it a better option to use it rather than importing Uranium from abroad.