Does India has more nuclear fuel than America?

Answer 1

Uranium deposits are much larger in the US compared to India, and all power operation in the US is currently based on enriched uranium with a straight-through cycle, the fuel is enriched, loaded, unloaded and stored with no further use. Large deposits of uranium are also found in Australia and Canada. In India the reserves of indigenous uranium are not great, but there are considerable reserves of thorium. This can be used for power production but the process is much more complicated and involves some chemical handling of the spent fuel which is not carried out in the US at present, because there is no need. India is not a signatory to the NPT and threfore wants to have its own indigenous supply of fuel, and this has prompted intereest in the thorium cycle. With the new US/India deal this emphasis could change. The following description of India's involvement with thorium is taken from 'www.world-nuclear.com'.

In India, both Kakrapar-1 and -2 units are loaded with 500 kg of thorium fuel in order to improve their operation when newly-started. Kakrapar-1 was the first reactor in the world to use thorium, rather than depleted uranium, to achieve power flattening across the reactor core. In 1995, Kakrapar-1 achieved about 300 days of full power operation and Kakrapar-2 about 100 days utilising thorium fuel. The use of thorium-based fuel was planned in Kaiga-1 and -2 and Rajasthan-3 and -4 (Rawatbhata) reactors. With about six times more thorium than uranium, India has made utilisation of thorium for large-scale energy production a major goal in its nuclear power program, utilising a three-stage concept: * Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs, elsewhere known as CANDUs) fuelled by natural uranium, plus light water reactors, produce plutonium. * Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs) use this plutonium-based fuel to breed U-233 from thorium. The blanket around the core will have uranium as well as thorium, so that further plutonium (ideally high-fissile Pu) is produced as well as the U-233. Then * Advanced Heavy Water Reactors burn the U-233 and this plutonium with thorium, getting about 75% of their power from the thorium. The used fuel will then be reprocessed to recover fissile materials for recycling. This Indian program has moved from aiming to be sustained simply with thorium to one "driven" with the addition of further fissile uranium and plutonium, to give greater efficiency.