India's Atomic Fuel Reprocessing Capacity to be Upgraded

India's Atomic Energy Commission reported that the country’s nuclear fuel reprocessing capacity will be greatly upgraded in order to provide for the nation’s indigenously designed Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs), which are to play an ever increasing role in providing for India’s soaring energy requirements.

AEC Chairman Srikumar Banerjee said, “The country's current 100 ton capacity of reprocessing will be multiplied several times so that the two in-principle sanctioned 500 megawatt FBRs do not face fuel shortage in the coming decade. We are also going ahead with enhancement of the country's enrichment program so that we can use enriched uranium in the indigenous reactors and also when India's Light Water Reactors get ready.

Today we can use enriched uranium in indigenous atomic reactors, but to meet the future demands of India's huge civil nuclear program, we should build value addition capacity to the imported yellow cake through enrichment for reactors which are under international safeguards,” the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Banerjee added that the AEC has approved two FBRs to be built at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu where a prototype FBR is in advanced stage of construction and “this (capacity enhancement) will ensure that there is no mismatch of fuel at the time of their criticality.”

By. Joao Peixe, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com