Why is India’s first indigenous Fast Breeder Reactor significant?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi bore witness to history on Monday.

The prime minister visited the power plant at Kalpakkam around 60 kilometres from Chennai — the home of India’s indigenous Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).

The prime minister, who was accompanied by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Atomic Energy Commission chairman AK Mohanty, Bhabha Atomic Research Center director Vivek Bhasin and Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research director B Venkataraman, watched the commencement of the ‘core loading’ in the PFBR.

But what do we know about the reactor? And why is it so significant?

Let’s take a closer look:

What do we know about the reactor?

The 500 MWe fast breeder reactor was established by Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI).

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According to The Hindu, it was designed by the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam.

Its reactor core comprises control sub-assemblies, blanket sub-assemblies and fuel sub-assemblies.

The core loading activity consists of loading of reactor control sub-assemblies, followed by the blanket sub-assemblies and the fuel sub-assemblies which will generate power.

As per New Indian Express, the Centre had given the green light to the construction of the PFBR in 2003.

Over 200 Indian industries including MSMEs participated in its development.

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The PFBR is an advanced third generation reactor with inherent passive safety features ensuring a prompt and safe shut down of the plant in the event of an emergency.

The reactor will initially use the Uranium-Plutonium Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel.

The Uranium-238 “blanket” surrounding the fuel core will undergo nuclear transmutation and thereby produce more fuel — thus giving it its nickname ‘Breeder’.

The use of Throium-232, which in itself is not a fissile material, as a blanket is also envisaged in this stage.

Thorium via transmutation, will create fissile Uranium-233 — which will be used as fuel in the third stage.

These are basically a special kind of nuclear reactors which generate more atomic fuel than they consume as they work.

Fast breeder reactors are called such not because they run faster but because the neutrons that sustain the atomic chain reaction travel at a much higher velocity than neutrons that help run the traditional atomic plants.

These are called breeders as they generate more fuel than they consume — a fact hard to fathom since they seem to defy the laws of conservation of energy.

But a very unique quirk of elemental uranium makes this possible.

Nuclear reactors use a flavour of uranium called U-235 which unfortunately constitutes a minuscule quantity even in super purified uranium.

The larger component is what is called U-238 this flavour is the bulk but is essentially a waste product as the atomic reaction cannot be sustained by this elemental flavour.

In a fast breeder reactor the very special fast neutrons interact with the so called wasted uranium U-238 and converts it into a valuable resource. This is why fast breeders are akin to an ‘akshaya patra’.

India’s fast breeder reactor is even more unique as within it the country also deploys special rods of thorium which when they get exposed to or irradiated by fast neutrons they generate U-233 and a normally benign thorium turns into a valuable atomic material.

It is well known that India is very energy hungry and as economic growth takes place mega quantities of electricity will be required.

Unfortunately, nature has not been bountiful on India as the Indian land mass is not endowed with enough uranium.

However, on the other hand India has the world’s second largest store of thorium.

Why is this significant?

Because the start of the ‘core loading’ of the FBR is a stepping stone to the third stage of India’s programme designed by Homi J Bhabha.

The first two stages witnessed India making use of pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) and natural uranium-238 (U-238), which contains minuscule amounts of U-235, as fissile material.

This lays the path for stage 3 — which will see Pu-239 will be combined with thorium-232 (Th-232) in reactors to produce energy and U-233.

India, making full use of it abundant thorium reserves, will thus achieve ‘aatma nirbharta’ in nuclear energy.

Since it uses the spent fuel from the first stage, FBR also offers great advantage in terms of significant reduction of nuclear waste generated — thereby avoiding the need for large geological disposal facilities.

PTI in 2017 quoted Yukiya Amano, then director general of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as saying, “Fast reactors can help extract up to 70 per cent more energy than traditional reactors and are safer than traditional reactors while reducing long lived radioactive waste by several fold.”

The Hindu piece also noted that India’s push towards reducing its dependence of fossil fuels has given nuclear power a ’new lease of life.’

The newspaper quoted NPCIL chairman BC Pathak as saying in December that the firm wants to “commission a nuclear power reactor every year” from 2024.

Modi in a post on X noted that the facility would obviate the need for nuclear fuel import.

“It will help India achieve both energy self-reliance and progress towards net zero goal,” the prime minister said.

The development also puts India in an exclusive club.

Once the reactor becomes operational, India will become just the second nation after Russia to have a commercially functioning PFBR.

The world’s only commercially operating fast breeder reactor is situated in the Ural Mountains of Russia at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant, not far from Russia’s fourth largest city Yekateringburg.

The Russians are the global leaders in fast breeder reactors having operated a fast breeder reactor called BN 600 since 1980.

In 2016, the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom commercially commissioned its big brother — the BN 800 fast breeder reactor.

This reactor produces about 800 MW of electricity and supplies it to the Ural region including the city of Yekateringburg.

Countries such as the US, Japan and France have repeatedly tried and failed to build fast breeder reactors.

They were unable to do so because of their inability to properly handle liquid sodium.

The US was first off the block was the US but it gave up since American governments are allergic to reprocessing nuclear waste.

Besides, the US has enough supplies of fissile material there is no hunger to maximally extract energy from uranium.

Japan and France both had robust programs with fast breeder technology but repeated failure to safely handle liquid sodium forced them to more or less give up on fast reactors.

With inputs from agencies