Advanced Heavy Water Reactor: A New Step Toward Sustainability

Ricardo Bastos Smith,Roberto Vicente,Indranil Bisuri,Mahima Sachdeva

doi:10.15392/bjrs.v8i3a.1368

Abstract

One of the great advances in the current evolution of nuclear power reactors is occurring in India, with the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR). It is a reactor that uses thorium as part of its fuel, which in its two fueling cycle options, in conjunction with plutonium or low enriched uranium, produces energy at the commercial level, generating less actinides of long half-life and inert thorium oxide, which leads to an optimization in the proportion of energy produced versus the production of burnt fuels of the order of up to 50%. The objective of this work is to present the most recent research and projects in progress in India, and how the expected results should be in compliance with the current sustainability models and programs, especially the "Green Chemistry", a program developed since the 1990s in the United States and England, which defines sustainable choices in its twelve principles and that can also be mostly related to the nuclear field. Nevertheless, in Brazil, for more than 40 years there has been the discontinuation of research for a thorium-fueled reactor, and so far there has been no prospect of future projects. The AHWR is an important example as an alternative way of producing energy in Brazil, as the country has the second largest reserve of thorium on the planet.

Highlights

With the growing need for electricity for human beings, as well as the progressive depletion of fossil fuel reserves and concerns related to global warming, nuclear power is increasingly becoming an important option to contribute substantially in attending the global energy needs
Ten years after the Stockholm meeting in 1982, an assessment of the period was performed at a meeting sponsored by United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), in Nairobi, which suggested the formation of the World Conference on Environment and Development - United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), set up by the United Nations in 1983 to analyze environmental and developmental problems
Considering the information on the AHWR300-LEU presented above, there are several attributes that can be related to the Green Chemistry principles: Principle 1 – Waste prevention: as the AHWR300-LEU uses Thorium as a fertile host, the quantity of minor actinides is significantly reduced, and the thorium oxide produced as waste has an inert matrix, so is more suitable for long-term storage

Summary

INTRODUCTION

With the growing need for electricity for human beings, as well as the progressive depletion of fossil fuel reserves and concerns related to global warming, nuclear power is increasingly becoming an important option to contribute substantially in attending the global energy needs. In the 1980s and 1990s several environment-friendly terms were coined, including Green Chemistry, which later became the subject of a set of 12 principles for elimination or reduction of hazardous substances applied accross the life cycle of any chemical product, including its design, manufacture, use, and ultimate disposal [2]. These principles can be mostly applied to the nuclear area, as presented in the following pages.

BACKGROUND

INDIA’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM AND THE ADVANCED HEAVY WATER REACTOR

Findings

DISCUSSION