Monday, April 22, 2024

Thorium use in India's three stage nuclear plan

Good news! India and China are a lot smarter than many Western countries, which try to rely on intermittent euphemistically called renewable clean energy!

"India’s Kerala state is famous for its languid beauty, laidback lifestyle and stunning beaches.

But it’s what lies beneath that has the country’s nuclear industry excited.

Kerala ... is also home to a massive amount of thorium. Indeed, India has the largest thorium deposits in the world, with the golden beaches of Odisha in eastern India also home to the prized mineral. Together, Kerala and Odisha account for over 70 percent of India’s thorium.

India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DoAE) scientists consider thorium as a “practically inexhaustible energy source” which will not emit greenhouse gases.

India’s first home-built prototype fast breeder reactor, the 500 megawatt Kalpakkam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu, which has undergone successful tests, offers a glimpse of how thorium can help power the nation. ...
As of 2014, India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DoAE) claimed to have “established 11.93 million tonnes of in situ resources of monazite (thorium-bearing mineral)” in six Indian states. These reserves contain about 1.07 million tonnes of thorium. ...
In June 2023, China took steps to issue an “operating permit” for an “experimental molten salt thorium nuclear reactor”. This reactor, located in the Gobi Desert, will be put through tests in the next few years. ..."

Thorium use in India's three stage nuclear plan

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