India's nuclear ambitions

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: Vowing to realize the dreams of Homi Jahangir Bhabha -- father of India’s atomic programme -- of achieving high level of energy security and energy independence for the country, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar has said India would set up manufacturing facilities for fuels required for all nuclear reactors over a period of time.
“We do expect augmentation of manufacturing capacity and associated modalities for characterization and quality control,” he said, inaugurating a three-day international conference on Characterisation and Quality Control of Nuclear Fuels, organized by the Nuclear Fuel Complex, at the Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad.
“Our ambition, however, is not restricted to fuel manufacturing alone but we would also like to set up a whole range of fuel cycle activities with the help of collaborators abroad and domestic technology development. We will do that both in the front end as well as back end of the fuel cycle,” Kakodkar said.
There’s a very broad canvas to work upon, he added.
Stating that India’s strengths lay in fast reactors and thorium, he said today the country was in a domain where “we can play with fertile and fissile fuels at will.”
He suggested a shift from Uranium-238 fuel to Thorium-232 which has a greater benefit given its higher fissile energy. “Thorium fuel cycle is much more proliferation-resistant,” he pointed out adding that they were ready to collaborate with anyone interested in sharing expertise in fuel cycle technology.
Observing that India was entering into a new era, Kakodkar saw large growth in nuclear power generation capacity with nuclear reactors and nuclears fuels coming from abroad. “The march towards diversity will continue.”
Canada’s Cameco Corporation president and CEO Gerald W Grandey, International Atomic Energy Agency’s nuclear fuel cycle and materials section head Chaitanya Ganguly, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research director Baldev Raj, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre director S Banerjee, Nuclear Power Corporation director (technical) S A Bhardwaj, Nuclear Fuel Complex chief executive R N Jayaraj and delegates from various countries like Russia, Canada, Korea and Kazaksthan attended.