The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) said that its work on an improved heavy-water based reactor capable of generating 300 megawatts (MW) using thorium will be available sometime next year. When ready, the design will be adopted by the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) to generate 700 mw of power.
Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Dr. Anil Kakodkar says that the thorium reactor is superior to the conventional nuclear because the technology is proliferation-resistant and fast breeder reactors because of the ease with which it can dispose excess plutonium.
Severely energy deficient India is desperately looking for ways to generate environmentally clean and abundant energy to serve its fast growing economy. The Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Deal was to give India access to nuclear fuel outside the control of the discriminatory Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, which the US Congress has passed a resolution to allow India access to such energy, the Senate has not. With the projected change in the Congress and Senate from Republican to Democrats and the lack of traction with the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the deal is in a state of suspended animation. Thorium reactors will provide the freedom India needs to generate power using the tons of plutonium in store. More importantly, India is the only country in the world with Thorium deposits and this will give it a massive advantage where all its energy needs can be met internally freeing massive amounts of resources used to import expensive oil and natural gas to generate electricity to address social and development issues
