DAE to set up 300 MW Advanced Heavy Water Reactor

Kalpakkam, June 12 (UNI) A new 300 MW Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) using Thorium and Uranium-233 as fuel would be set up by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), marking the third stage of India's nuclear power Programme.

Announcing this at a press meet after the inauguration of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) here, BARC Director and Atomic Energy Commission Member Dr Srikumar Banerjee said the state-of-the-art indigenous reactor would be equivalent to a fourth generation reactor in the United States in terms of sophisticated safety systems and fuel reprocessing.

The location and estimated cost of the reactor were not yet finalised. 'The siting and the total cost will be finalised after considering various aspects', he added.

Under the first stage of the nuclear programme Natural Uranium was used as fuel. This gave sufficient quantity of Plutonium for use in Fast Breeder Reactors - the second stage. Using excess neutron availability, plutonium gets converted to Uranium 233, which would be used as fuel for third generation reactors like the AHWR.

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