Hyderabad, Feb 18: Vowing to realise Homi
Jahangir Bhabha's dream of achieving energy security and
independence for the country, Atomic Energy Commission
chairman Anil Kakodkar said India would set up manufacturing
facilities for fuels required for all nuclear reactors over a
period of time.
"We do expect augmentation of manufacturing capacity
and associated modalities for characterisation and quality
control," he said, inaugurating a three-day international
conference on Characterisation and Quality Control of Nuclear
Fuels, organised by the Nuclear Fuel Complex, at the Ramoji
Film City here today.
"Our ambition, however, is not restricted to fuel
manufacturing alone but we would also like to set up a whole
range of fuel cycle activities with the help of collaborators
abroad and domestic technology development. We will do that
both in the front end as well as back end of the fuel cycle,"
Kakodkar said.
There's a very broad canvas to work upon, he added.
Kakodkar said that India's strengths lay in fast
reactors and thorium and added that the country was in a
domain where "We can play with fertile and fissile fuels at
will."
He suggested a shift from Uranium-238 fuel to
Thorium-232 which has a greater benefit given its higher
fissile energy.
"Thorium fuel cycle is more proliferation-resistant,"
Kakodkar said adding that they were ready to collaborate with
anyone interested in sharing expertise in fuel cycle
technology.
Observing that India was entering a new era, Kakodkar saw
large growth in nuclear power generation capacity with nuclear
reactors and nuclear fuels coming from abroad. "The march
towards diversity will continue," he said.
Canada's Cameco Corporation president and CEO Gerald W
Grandey, International Atomic Energy Agency's nuclear fuel
cycle and materials section head Chaitanya Ganguly, Indira
Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research director Baldev Raj,
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre's director S Banerjee, Nuclear
Power Corporation director (technical) S A Bhardwaj, Nuclear
Fuel Complex chief executive R N Jayaraj and delegates from
various countries like Russia, Canada, Korea and Kazaksthan
attended the conference.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 00:00