India’s uranium reserves are less than one percent of the world’s reserves, but thorium reserves are more than sixty percent of the world’s reserves. India can get energy according to its needs for the next four hundred years with Thorium.
India needs vast amounts of energy to meet its energy needs and provided electricity to eighteen thousand villages of the country. The electricity consumption in the cities is increasing rapidly. This year, it is estimated to reach 7,000 megawatts per day in the country’s capital, Delhi. Many power stations have to be operated together to provide electricity to the same metropolis.
By 2024, the aim is to generate 35 GW of power from nuclear energy. Seven years ago, in 2012, during the process of starting the Kudankulam nuclear plant, established in Tamil Nadu with the help of Russia, some analysts questioned why India did not choose Thorium instead of Uranium.
One obstacle in this is that the Thorium powered reactors can take about five decades to build. Besides, electricity cannot be produced from Thorium alone, and the fuel must include 20% of plutonium.
The Thorium based power generation program is undergoing extensive research in Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam near Chennai. After adding 880 kilos of plutonium in Chennai based Advanced Thorium Breeder Reactor, it will change to 1100 kg Thorium Uranium 233. IGCAR is also developing a 500 MW fast breeder reactor.
