CSIR plans to ramp up supply of radiation shielding window glass for India's nuclear reactors

With India aiming to build 10 new nuclear reactors, the CSIR-Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute (CGCRI) hopes to ramp up supply of radiation shielding window (RSW) glass that protects workers and scientists from harmful radiations to meet the demand. CSIR-CGCRI’s Director K. Muraleedharan said the lab has developed two products for the nuclear energy sector in India. [caption id=“attachment_3569949” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. Getty[/caption] One deals with the development of manufacturing technology and supply of RSW glass and the other with borosilicate glass beads for safe disposal of nuclear waste. “You can look through the glass but radiations don’t affect you. We have supplied up to 20 tonnes by now (in the last 10 years) but as nuclear plants come up, each year we may have to supply close to 10 to 15 tonnes,” Muraleedharan told IANS in Kolkata on Monday during the ongoing CSIR Platinum Jubilee Mega Science Exhibition. While the radiation shielding glass is being produced in pilot scale at CGCRI for catering to the need of Department of Atomic Energy, the technology transfer to industry for the product is “in the process”, he said. “Some operations you have to watch and the windows should be protective. Today only Russia supplies these to us and their order books are full for the next 10 years so we have intervened and made this indigeneously,” he said. Muraleedharan said the cost of the two interventions is “one third of the imported ones”.