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Concept
Advanced heavy-water reactor
Summary
The advanced heavy-water reactor (AHWR) or AHWR-300 is the latest Indian design for a next-generation nuclear reactor that burns thorium in its fuel core. It is slated to form the third stage in India's three-stage fuel-cycle plan. This phase of the fuel cycle plan was supposed to be built starting with a 300MWe prototype in 2016.
KAMINI is the world's first thorium-based experimental reactor. It is cooled and moderated by light water, fueled with uranium-233 metal produced by the thorium fuel cycle harnessed by the neighbouring FBTR reactor and produces 30 KW of thermal energy at full power.
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) set up a large infrastructure to facilitate the design and development of these Advanced Heavy Water reactors. Things to be included range from materials technologies, critical components, reactor physics, and safety analysis. Several facilities have been set up to experiment with these reactors. The AHWR is a pressure tube type of heavy water reactor. The Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), is fully funding the future development, the current development, and the design of the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor. The new version of Advanced Heavy Water Reactors will be equipped with more general safety requirements. India is the base for these reactors due to India's large Thorium reserves; therefore, it is more geared for continual use and operation of the AHWR.
Thorium is three times more abundant in the Earth's crust than uranium, though less abundant in terms of economically viable to extract proven reserves, with India holding the largest proven reserves of any country. A lot of thorium is also contained in the tailings of mines that extract rare earth elements from monazite which usually contains both rare earth elements and thorium. As long as demand for thorium remains low, these tailings present a chemical (thorium is a toxic heavy metal) and - to a lesser extent - radiological issue which would be solved at least in part by use of thorium in nuclear power plants.
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