The country’s thorium reserves make up to 25 per cent of the global reserves. Thus, thorium can be easily used as a fuel to cut down on the import of Uranium deposits from other countries. Why is it not being used? Read…
How India produces electricity
Nearly 65 per cent of the electricity in India is generated in thermal power plants, where India utilises its large coal resources. According to estimates, India produces 22 percent electricity from hydroelectric power plants and only 3 per cent electricity, at present comes from nuclear power plants. This is despite having 21 operational nuclear power plants across the country. The rest 10 per cent is generated with the help of alternate resources like solar, wind, biomass etc. Much like India uses coal in its thermal power plants; it can use Thorium as an alternate fuel for Uranium in its nuclear power plants.
India has one of the largest reserves of thorium
According to the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), India has 10.70 million tonnes of Monazite which contains 9,63,000 tonnes of Thorium Oxide (ThO2). India's thorium deposits, estimated at 360,000 tonnes, far outweigh its natural uranium deposits at 70,000 tonnes.
India’s Uranium imports since 2008
Since 2008, India has been one of the major nuclear fuel buyers. India imports most of the required Uranium from countries including Russia, Kazakhstan, and France and lately the deal with Canada and Australia have further enhanced India’s avenues to get Uranium from overseas.
Did you know: If estimates are believed, nearly 5,559 metric tonnes of uranium has been imported by India from different countries since 2008. With the help of 21 reactors currently operational, India produces around 3 per cent of total power generated with a maximum capacity of 6,000 MW.
Why have the nuclear plants failed to deliver?
Due to disturbed supply of Uranium from different countries, India’s nuclear power plants haven’t been able to deliver the projected amount of electricity. Did you know: India has set a target of producing 88,537 MW of power from all three major sources. But by January 2016, India could only produce a total of 74,535.72 MW of electricity. And the contribution of nuclear power plants was least as it failed to achieve even 50 per cent of the target in first four years of the 12th Five Year Plan.
How is Uranium used in reactors?
Uranium extracted from the ore is first stored as uranium oxide concentrate, better known as yellow cake, when is then enriched into Uranium-235 isotope, a fuel that can be put as pellets in the nuclear fuel assembly.
How will thorium work?
Thorium too is also a fertile substance, but not a fissile substance by itself. It requires work to make a usable in a nuclear reactor. The process through which Thorium can be made usable in the reactor is a three stage process.
At present, India is far from taking benefits of the large reserves of Thorium as it hasn’t yet developed the mechanism through which Thorium can be processed and made usable to put into the reactor.