Indian Space and Nuclear Programs

Date: Feb 27, 2005

Indian Space and Nuclear Programs

Date: Feb 27, 2005

I am a firm believer that space is for all of us. Any country that devlops the technical capacity to launch large payloads (anything bigger than say 4500kg) into Low Earth Orbit, will have the basic expertise needed to launch human beings into space.

It doesn't suprise me very much that the two most populous nations on the planet were setting their aspirations on space. The basic technologies needed for the venture trickle back through as spinoffs. And then there is the national 'satisfaction' of having achieved it. Japan too is looking to a time when it has a base on the moon; I think China has publicly stated it intends to go to the moon and Mars. I think Arthur C. Clarke predicted this almost two decades ago when he wrote the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. In Odyssey II, the third challenger for a race to Jupiter was the Chinese (I can't remember the name of their vessel.) Anyways, the point is that others see the potential value of space exploration.

If the US isn't careful, we may be 'left behind.'

Date: Feb 27, 2005

I would just add that India has also made a tremendous amount of progress over the years in the field of civilian nuclear technology -- particularly that associated with their heavy water reactors, known as CANDU clones, as well as reactors based on the thorium fuel cycle (India has far more thorium ore than uranium), and sodium-cooled fast breeder reactors.

Just last year they successfully completed the re-tubing of their 20-year old, 250MWe MAPS-2 heavy water reactor (Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam, in Tamil Nadu state), replacing the old, degraded and radioactive zirconium fuel channels with more durable, indiginously-made zirconium-niobium ones. They are preparing to retube MAPS-1 this year, and they already started construction of their 500MWe PFBR (Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor) power plant, at the same site.

NUCLEONICS WEEK JULY 8, 2004
India preparing to launch building of 500-MW breeder
Pouring of first concrete, the commencement of construction
of India's 500-MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor
(PFBR), is expected by nuclear authorities by mid-August.
Excavation work at the site at Kalpakkam, near the Tamil
Nadu state capital, Chennai, have been completed, according
to Dr. Baldev Raj, director of the Indira Gandhi Centre
for Atomic Research, which designed the reactor. The concrete
foundation will be laid on the land leveled by spread
of mud-mat. The 14-meter diameter PFBR will help standardize
the design for four more breeders in the national quest
to reach 20,000 megawatts nuclear power capacity by 2020.
Raj told a meeting of nuclear experts last week that the
challenge in building the PFBR is to produce electricity at
3.20 rupees (5 U.S. cents) per kilowatt-hour, as committed to
the nation by the nuclear establishment. At this price,
nuclear power will compare favorably with new coalbased
power plants in India.
The PFBR construction will launch the second stage of
the country's three-stage indigenous nuclear power program.
The first stage has involved building uranium-fueled pressurized
heavy water reactors. Mixed plutonium-uranium-carbide
fuel being developed at the Bhabha Atomic Research
Center will power the second-stage breeders, while the third-stage
units will utilize India's abundant thorium reserves.
India's natural uranium resources cannot sustain a
nuclear program beyond 10,000 MW, but use of breeders can
extend that to about 50,000 MW, according to nuclear
authorities. Beyond that, India will tap its large thorium
resources to be derive uranium from the thorium through a
complex technology being worked out indigenously.
-Sunil Saraf, New Delhi

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<https://www.cogonline.org/aboutus/cognizant/cognizant9_6/cognizant9_6.html>
TAPP-3&4 Enters Commissioning Phase
R. Sharan, TAPP-3&4, Nu-Power journal

Tarapur Atomic Power Project Unit 3&4 (TAPP-3&4, India) is on a fast track, with the first unit already in the commissioning phase.

All 784 feeders in TAPP-4 have been installed in just five months, breaking all previous records. The commissioning of conventional systems has started. Fresh water system is commissioned. De-mineralized water is available for auxiliary cooling water (ACW) commissioning. No-load test of ACW and service water pump motors is in progress. Fire hydrant piping has been completed in most areas. Condenser tubing in the first heat exchanger of TAPP-4 has been completed by using automatic welding machine head. High-pressure and low-pressure turbines have been boxed up ahead of schedule.

In the control room, electrical system panels, common services system, primary heat transport system panels and secondary system panels are installed and their commissioning is in progress. Computerized operator information system is already commissioned. Wire terminations in control distribution frame is in full swing.=

Work on TAPP-3 continues on schedule, with inner containment dome cast and calandria end-shield assembly welding completed.

There are 6 PHWR's under construction in India. As of April 2004, TAPP-4 was 94% complete, TAPP-3 - 79% complete. At the Kaiga site, the calandria has been installed for Kaiga-3, and the internal structure of the reactor building is in progress for Kaiga-4 (with units 52% and 33% complete, respectively). At the Rajasthan site, the calandria and FM vaults construction is in progress for RAPP-5 (with RAPP-5 42% complete and RAPP-6 - 26% complete).

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NucNet News, 2004 March 19
India's Rajasthan-1 Returns To Grid As PFBR Breeder Project Continues
Rajasthan-1 nuclear reactor was recommissioned and synchronised to the grid last month, following a shutdown of almost two years to perform technical and safety upgrades, Indian officials have said.

A 90-megawatt (MW) CANDU Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR), Rajasthan-1 began commercial operation in 1973. During the 1980s, the unit's operation was adversely affected by shutdowns caused by leakage in one of its end shields. As technology developed, the problem was solved, and the unit continued to operate satisfactorily throughout the 1990s (see News No. 359, 11th August 1995).

In April 2002, Rajasthan-1 was shut down on a directive of the Indian Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). Extensive life-management activities were carried out to assure proper functioning of the coolant channels in particular. A number of upgrades were implemented, including the installation of a retrofitted high-pressure Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS), supplementary control room, flood DG set, and power and control cable segregation.

Meanwhile, work continues at Kalpakkam, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu - site of the country's Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) project (see Background No. 14, 31st July 2002).

While the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) began excavation work on the site in the summer of 2002 (see News No. 256, 25th July 2002), the Indian government gave official authorisation to proceed with construction of the 35-billion rupee (627-million euro) 500-megawatt (MW) PFBR just last year. A company, Bhartiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd (BHAVINI), was created to carry out the project - along with the utility Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), which is based in Kalpakkam and which already operates its own Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR).

BHAVINI was incorporated in October 2003, with an authorised share capital of 50 billion rupees. The Indian government is providing 80% of the capital in the form of equity, while the other 20% balance is coming in the form of market borrowings.

Indian nuclear officials have said the PFBR will act as a springboard for the use of India's considerable reserves of thorium as a new commercial nuclear fuel cycle. Thorium is more abundant in nature than uranium, and a thorium-based fuel cycle would produce less plutonium and other transuranic elements than conventional uranium fuel cycles - though much development work is still required before the thorium fuel cycle can be commercialised. Indian officials are aiming to have the Kalpakkam ready for commercial operation by 2011.

Source: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre / IGCAR
Editor: Daniel MacIsaac