Thursday, June 4, 2009

India need not import LWR after 2050: Kakodkar

Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar.
India need not import light water reactors (LWRs) after 2050 as it would by then have a matured fast breeder technology and be ready to use Thorium technology, said Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar.

Indian nuclear community should not have any confusion regarding this as there are talks going around about using Thorium even before the fast breeder technology is matured, Kakodkar said, delivering Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Foundation day lecture.

Although country has large amount of Thorium and would be a priority for long time in the future, India has to follow the well thought out plan of three-stage programme of Homi J Bhabha as Thorium does not provide fast growth.

India needs fast growth and such growth can be sustained by fast breeder reactors (FBRs) with a multiplier effect.

"If you deploy thorium out of turn (before stage II maturity), which does not support growth out of turn, then you will not get large generating capacity," he said, talking on 'Developing Nuclear Technology for our energy independence: the grand challenge', in Mumbai on Monday.

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