The Hindu : National : Reactor construction to begin in mid-August

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 30, 2004

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National

Reactor construction to begin in mid-August

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JUNE 29. The first pour of the concrete for the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), signalling the beginning of the reactor's construction at Kalpakkam, near Chennai, will be by mid-August, according to Baldev Raj, Director, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam.

The PFBR will generate 500 MWe. Excavation work is over and a sprawling mud-mat has been spread over the excavated area to get a level-ground on which the concrete foundation for the reactor will come up. The IGCAR has designed the reactor, which will be 14 metres tall and 14 metres in diameter. The Government of India has earmarked Rs. 4,500 crores for the project and its fuel cycle facilities. It will use mixed uranium-plutonium oxide as fuel, and liquid sodium as coolant and will generate power in 2010.

PFBR marks the beginning of the second stage of India's nuclear power programme. The second stage envisages the building of a series of breeder reactors to provide energy security to the country. India is expected to generate about 5,30,000 MWe through the breeder route. They are called breeder reactors because they produce more fuel than they consume. The first stage has seen the construction of a series of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) in the country. Thorium-fuelled reactors will come up under the third stage. An Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) that will generate 300 MWe is being developed under the third stage. Dr. Baldev Raj said the breeder reactors would mark the continuity of the dream of Homi J. Bhabha, the pater familias of India's nuclear energy establishment. The IGCAR Director said the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in his recent Technology Day address had noted that energy security could come only from fast breeder reactors.

Dr. Baldev Raj was speaking at a function here on Monday to facilitate him on his taking over as Director, IGCAR, and on his being selected for "The International Committee of NDT (Non-destructive Testing) Research Award."

The challenge in building the PFBR was that "we have given a commitment to the nation that we will sell electricity from the PFBR at Rs. 3.20 a unit and we are committed to bringing it [this tariff] down substantially in 2010," he said. The design would be standardised to build four more breeder reactors of 500 MWe each before 2020 A.D.

V.L. Sridharan, secretary, ASM International, formerly known as the American Society for Metals, Chennai chapter, welcoming the gathering, said that "the International Committee of NDT Research Award" for which Dr. Baldev Raj has been selected was an international award given once in four years.

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