India today announced it had designed a new version of advanced heavy water atomic reactor that would use lesser low enriched uranium along with thorium as fuel and possess next generation safety requirements.
“A new version of AHWR named Advanced Heavy Water Reactor-Low Enriched Uranium (AHWR-LEU) that uses low enriched uranium along with thorium as fuel has been designed recently,” chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Anil Kakodkar said at the International Atomic Energy Agency's general conference.
The reactor has a lower requirement of mined uranium per unit energy produced as compared to most of the current generation thermal reactors, Kakodkar said. India, which has large thorium reserves, has chalked out a nuclear power programme based on its domestic resource position of uranium and thorium. “This version can also meet the requirement of medium sized reactors in countries with small grids while meeting the requirements of next generation systems,” Kakodkar said, indicating India was ready for export of such reactors in near future. — PTI (TRIBUNE)
No comments:
Post a Comment