HALEU-Thorium fuel unsuitable for Indian nuclear reactors: study

A study by BARC scientists has concluded that HALEU-Thorium fuel is unsuitable for India's nuclear reactors, requiring costly redesigns and reducing plutonium production.

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) researchers have reported that a new kind of nuclear fuel, touted for being able to allow India to take advantage of its vast thorium reserves, will not fit in the country’s three-stage programme and could entail expensive reactor redesigns.

The study was published in Current Science.

The composition the team evaluated is called HALEU-Thorium. It is the basis for “Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life”, or ANEEL, a fuel that the state-owned NTPC, Ltd. and the U.S.-based company Clean Core Thorium Energy are currently exploring.

India’s long-term nuclear energy plan has three stages. In the ongoing first stage, India is using pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) using natural uranium. However, India has much less access to uranium than thorium, so the next two stages are designed to transition to using more thorium.

ANEEL mixes thorium with high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), which contains uranium enriched to 5-20%. Its proponents have suggested ANEEL could be a “drop-in” in existing reactors, including PHWRs, allowing them to use thorium today.

The Indian government recently passed the SHANTI Act to allow private companies to help deploy such advanced technologies.