India is working on integrating and converging coal, hydel, solar, wave, tidal, wind and nuclear energies

by K Siddhartha

Can one imagine India having a limitless source of energy? Can one imagine India completely independent in energy? Can one imagine a nuclear power plant fuelling India’s energy security? Can one imagine a grid integration comprising all forms of energy?

India is working on a grand convergence of integrating its energy resource exploration, prospecting, utilization and sustainability. Integrating and converging coal, hydel, solar, wave, tidal, wind, nuclear.

The aim is to reduce dependence on fossil fuels through reducing dependence on imports, at the same time developing alternate substitute like ethanol that can be mixed with petroleum plus developing alternative of electricity generation.

With its vast agricultural resources and sugarcane plantations, India will be in a prime position to take multi benefits of sugarcane plantations and its by-products—Sugar, Gur, Khandsaari, Ethanol, Bagasse and Molasses…all of them

While this may be at the centre of fuelling the transport revolution, the other option being exercised now is converting maximum vehicles to electric vehicles. When it comes to electric vehicles, what we will need in the future will be a quantum jump in electricity generation. A generation plan where the generation location is not fixed but footloose so as to minimize transmission and distribution (T&D) losses. The best source in this case will be nuclear energy.

With advancement in hybrid technology, using electric power with ethanol blend fuel, India is making strides in the automobile industry.

The Indian government has been vocal and supportive of rooftop solar panels which hold the capacity to power the whole nation if only 70% of houses are covered with solar panels.

With household and automobile fuel covered, India is simultaneously focusing on nuclear power plants to power industries to integrate all energy consumption aspects with energy generational aspects.

India has a case to develop nuclear power as its share is less than 3%.

Case For Developing Nuclear Energy

An uneven distribution of coal, concentration of the potential of hydro-electric power is mostly in Eastern India and a galloping demand that will require an energy generation decentralisation. Nuclear power plants can be installed in locations remote from hydel and coal resources.

Also, nuclear source is clean, compact and concentrated. It is clean for minimal impact on the environment, its installation involves minimum land requirement and minimum displacement of local populace, and also to decarbonise the economy.

It is compact because it is available in the form of fuel bundles, which, once loaded in the reactor core, provide energy for 1½ to 2 years at a stretch before discharge.

It is concentrated as 1 kg uranium gives energy equivalent to 25,000 kg of coal even at 1% utilization in today’s first stage thermal neutron reactors.

India’s Present State

India has more than 20 nuclear reactors and more are coming up. Current reactors do not account for even 4-5% of India’s power generation. India is heavily dependent on fossil fuels for meeting its energy needs to become the third largest economy in the world

India does not have enough uranium reserves to power nuclear plants but it does have thorium in abundant quantity, which can be converted to uranium. For this to happen in chemical reaction, the fuel has to pass through three-stage nuclear programme. Currently, all reactors are of first stage which burn uranium to produce power, and plutonium for second stage reactors.

The biggest obstacle in this case is technology that prevents the use of its atomic resources, particularly thorium found in monazite sands.

This game will change once India comes in a position to utilize its thorium resources and the only way it can be done is by fast breeder reactor technology.

The Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), a constituent unit of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), has so far established 11.93 million tonnes of in situ resources monazite (thorium bearing mineral) in the country, which contains about 1.07 million tonnes of thorium.

Now imagine the potential of India’s energy generation with such huge deposits and its processing capabilities.

India is actually on the threshold of becoming so independent that is just not imaginable.

Fast Breeder Reactor Technology

File photos of under construction Fast Breeder Reactor vessel container at Kalpakkam in progress

A reactor is the place where heat and energy are generated to be converted into electricity. In the reactor, not all fuel is used, and some waste in the form of spent fuel is produced. In a fast breeder reactor, while the nuclear fuel is being used to generate energy, the same fuel is used to generate more fuel, in a sense to breed more fuel and therefore called as fast breeder reactor. Fast breeder reactor is thus a nuclear reactor that produces more fissionable material than it consumes to generate energy. Whereas a conventional nuclear reactor can use only the uranium-235 for fuel, a breeder reactor employs either uranium-238 or thorium. In Kalpakkam, thorium (which is abundantly available in India) will be converted into uranium which will be used further as fuel.

With Kalpakkam, India actually entered into another phase 2 of nuclear program. In the first stage, natural uranium was used as a fuel, with plutonium as a byproduct. In the second stage, plutonium is obtained from the first stage but along with the fuel, some thorium will be kept inside the reactor and it will be converted into U-233. In the third stage, U-233 will be obtained from the second stage. The Kalpakkam reactor will breed plutonium as it consumes it. It will also help convert thorium to U-233 on the side.

Fast breeder reactors can help extract up to 70% more energy than traditional reactors while reducing long lived radioactive waste.

There is no need for a large quantity of fuel material for the annual external feed and thus eliminates the need for large capacity waste storage spaces.

A fast breeder reactor is capable of yielding about 200,000 MWe by 2050.

As it uses spent fuel from the first program, it also reduces the nuclear waste generated, avoiding the need for large geological disposal facilities.

These reactors use a small core which is important to sustain chain reaction. They also do not need the use of a moderator to slow down neutrons, as they use fast neutrons.

These reactors are designed with various safety measures that include a failsafe prompt and safe shutdown of the facility in case of an emergency.

Impact On India’s Political Economy

With limited uranium reserves but massive reserve of thorium, fast breeder reactors are a clean solution.

Geopolitically, the utilisation of thorium reserves will go a long way in making India stronger, independent and having a sustainable economy as it will be based on its own ecosystem of energy congruence.

Strategically, plutonium-239 obtained from the breeders is used to make nuclear bombs. When the spent natural uranium fuel in the pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRS) is reprocessed, plutonium-239, 241 and 242 are obtained.

Issues With Fast Breeder Reactors

There are always some fears associated though.

To begin with, some primarily revolving around safety, proliferation of nuclear weapons, and environmental impacts.

Fast breeder reactors operate using liquid sodium or another fast neutron moderator, which can pose safety challenges due to its reactivity with air and water.

Leakage of sodium coolant could lead to fires and explosions.

Additionally, the high temperatures and pressures involved in FBRs create the potential for accidents that could result in the release of radioactive materials.

FBRs produce large quantities of plutonium-239 as a byproduct of the nuclear fission process. While this plutonium can be used as fuel in FBRs, it is also a proliferation risk, as it can be diverted for use in nuclear weapons. Sooner other countries will start building narratives against widespread deployment of FBRs that increases the availability of plutonium and contribute to nuclear weapons proliferation.

As with any nuclear facility, fast breeder reactors are potential targets for accidents and terrorist attacks. A deliberate attack or sabotage on our decentralized footloose FBR reactors will be, the release of radioactive materials and the potential for widespread harm to high density population in India can be massive.

CONCLUSION

Despite all these limitations, an FBR like Kalpakkam has actually ushered in a new disruption for India in India and for the world.

To have lithium deposits that are one of the largest in the world, solar and wind potential too one of the largest, and to think India will not be at the apex of shaping of global direction of economy, dictating technologies and shaping integration into Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam will be a foolhardy assumption.

With the dream of reaching the thorium stage getting closer we are more than just one step towards a new world order but a new window to the future.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi allowed the second stage inauguration to pass unnoticed but I think that he allowed it to happen is indicative of a major celebration in the offing when we bridge that last step.

K Siddhartha is an author, strategic thinker and earth scientist. This essay reflects his opinions alone