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Indian nuclear scientists have planned for the design of a 1,000 MW fast breeder reactor that will compensate for the heavy demands of electricity in the country.
Accordingly, they have already planned a three-step procedure to design this fast breed reactor by 2018. In the first step, there will be a new 120 MW test reactor which would be powered by metallic fuel. In the second step, a 500 MW fast breeder reactor would be set up and in the last phase, the existing fast breeder test reactor's (FBTR) core will be modified to a metallic core.
A fast breeder reactor has the potential to produce more material for a nuclear fission reaction than it consumes.
As part of this three-stage nuclear reactor programme in the designing the 1,000 MW fast reactor, there would be initiation to get the right ratio of Plutonium to Uranium, which is to be kept as 20:80 in the new metallic fuel.
The mixed plutonium-uranium oxide (MOX) fuel has some technical challenges that is to be studied in detail.
The MOX fuel has the advantage in powering India's first seven fast reactors including the upcoming 500 MW prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR). And, shortly one of them will have the capability to convert to metallic fuel.
"The proposed 1,000 MW reactor will be powered by metallic fuel. The first step in realising that is to test the metallic fuel pins and sub-assemblies in the FBTR located at Kalpakkam. This will be followed by replacing FBTR's entire carbide fuel with metallic fuel," Baldev Raj, director of IGCAR, told the media.
"The knowledge acquired in designing the oxide fuel fast reactors will be leveraged in building the metallic core reactors. However, the plant parameters will vary between the two reactors which needs detailed study," Reactor Engineering Group Director S.C. Chetal told the media.
According to sources, the new 150 MW metallic fuel test reactor at Kalpakkam would acquire the said capability by 2013.
According to officials two kinds of metallic fuels will be fabricated for testing and the different parts are to be designed by different research organizations in the country. The sodium bonded fuel pins are to be designed by IGCAR. The mechanically bonded metallic fuel pins have been developed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai.
On the issue of setting up of a new test reactor, P. Chellapandi, director of safety group said, "Worldwide there are not many reactors with metallic core. The normal practice is to have a test reactor, then build a medium-sized one and then go for commercial-sized reactors."
"The proposed 150 MW test reactor will be the test bed for metallic fuel. The results will be further validated by using the fuel in the flexible dual fuel fast reactor. The FBTR is a small-sized one and will not give the required data," he added.
According to IGCAR officials, the construction of those six reactors will begin in 2017.
"Four fast reactors will be ready by 2020 and the balance two by 2023 - one of which will be the flexible dual fuel reactor," said Chellapandi.
He also said that the reactor design work on the ambitious 1,000 MW fast breeder reactor would be over around 2018 and then construction to start in 2020.
