India's Most Advanced Nuclear Reactor Approaches Finish Line (NDTV)

[NNadir]

1. I very much support this fuel cycle proposal, and have long felt that heavy water reactors with mixed....

...thorium/uranium fuels represent a path forward to addressing the issues of depleted uranium valorization to generate the plutonium we will need to slow extreme global heating.

India has a fleet of heavy water reactors (of the CANDU type, of which they are knockoffs) and thus is well situated to exploit this option. The ²³³U that will be generated can be exported and mixed down with depleted uranium and eliminate the expensive and somewhat problematic enrichment systems.

The fast neutron cycle is, of course, a key to succeeding.

All this said, the Kalpakkam reactor is a straight up sodium cooled reactor; these reactors have been a mixed bag, with the scaled up Monju in Japan and the Superphenix in France having not succeeded commercially or in service. The BN-600 in Russia and the EBRII in the US did better. (The Oklo SMR is built around the EBRII technology.)

In discussions with my son I understand a problem that I hope has been considered with Kalpakkam; specifically materials science issues. One of the things that generates a lot of complaints by my son's Ph.D. advisor is that innovative materials are not considered in nominally "new" reactor types, and that people tend to do things the way they've always been done, because they've always been done that way. This is a very bad reason to do something, because it's always been done that way, particularly in light of systems that did not live up to expectations.

Personally, I feel that we need to move beyond sodium as a fast reactor coolant. Before I die, I want to be sure to leave ideas about better options in my son's head. There are many better options I think.