By Rudra Prasad Pradhan, 360info AND Kalyani Yeola, 360info

India’s Indigenous Prototype Fast Breeder Nuclear Reactor (PFBR) and abundant thorium reserves hold key to India’s future energy security.

India’s Kerala state is famous for its languid beauty, laidback lifestyle and stunning beaches.

But it’s what lies beneath that has the country’s nuclear industry excited.

Kerala — ‘God’s Own Country’ — is also home to a massive amount of thorium, which India’s nuclear scientists see as the prospective mineral to help fuel an indigenous nuclear power programme. Indeed, India has the largest thorium deposits in the world, with the golden beaches of Odisha in eastern India also home to the prized mineral. Together, Kerala and Odisha account for over 70 percent of India’s thorium.

The reason for the fuss is understandable: India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DoAE) scientists consider thorium as a “practically inexhaustible energy source” which will not emit greenhouse gases.

India’s first home built prototype fast breeder reactor, the 500 megawatt Kalpakkam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu, which has undergone successful tests, offers a glimpse of how thorium can help power the nation.

Although thorium itself is not enough. It needs to be converted to Uranium-233 in a reactor before it can be used as fuel. The Kalpakkam reactor demonstrated that this conversion is possible.

As of 2014, India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DoAE) claimed to have “established 11.93 million tonnes of in situ resources of monazite (thorium-bearing mineral)” in six Indian states. These reserves contain about 1.07 million tonnes of thorium.

Last month Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took time out from his election campaign to visit the Kalpakkam power plant to witness the “commencement of core loading”.

Read Full Story https://theprobe.in/security/nuclear-power-how-indias-beaches-can-unlock-a-nuclear-powered-future-4477480