MUMBAI, June 2 (Agencies): India need not import Light Water Reactors (LWRs) after 2050 as it would by then have a matured fast breeder technology and ready to use Thorium technology, said Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar.
Indian nuclear community should not have any confusion regarding this as there are talks going around about using Thorium even before the fast breeder technology is matured, Kakodkar said delivering Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Foundation day lecture.
Although country has large amount of Thorium and will be a priority for long time in the future, India has to follow the well thought out plan of three-stage programme of Homi J Bhabha as Thorium does not provide fast growth.
India needs fast growth and such growth can be sustained by fast breeder reactors (FBRs) with a multiplier effect.
"If you deploy thorium out of turn (before stage II maturity), which does not support growth out of turn, then you will not get large generating capacity," he said talking on "Developing Nuclear Technology for our energy independence: the grand challenge," here yesterday.
If India wants to generate large quantity of electricity in near future, the sequence should be correct Stage I -Pressurised heavy water reactor using natural uranium, Stage II-Fast breeder using Uranium-Plutonium and stage III-using thorium (converted into fissile material Uranium- 233,), Kakodkar said adding that do not bypass this at any cost.
Clarifying that generation of electricity from thorium based plants can beder technology, he said if we bypass the FBRs stage of deveneration as envisaged in the three-stage programme.
