India plans tenfold uranium output growth

[lcafanboy]

India plans tenfold uranium output growth
08 March 2018

India is planning a tenfold increase in uranium production over the next 15 years, Minister of State Jitendra Singh told the country's parliament yesterday. State company Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) has outlined expansion plans to meet the Department of Atomic Energy's (DAE) vision of achieving self-sufficiency in uranium production.

In answer to questions in the Lok Sabha, Singh said UCIL, which is a public service undertaking with the DAE, has outlined a plan for "massive expansion" leading to a tenfold rise in uranium production by 2031-2032. The plan includes maintenance of sustained supply from existing facilities, capacity expansion of some existing units and construction of new production centres (mines and plants) in different parts of the country, he said.

"Considering the resources already identified in different geological basins by Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), a constituent unit of DAE, UCIL's major production centres are planned in Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Rajasthan and Meghalaya," Singh said.

The expansion is planned in three phases, with the first expected to increase uranium production to 3.5 times existing levels by the "12th year". Completion of projects in the second phase is expected to achieve a sevenfold expansion over current production, with the third phase of projects leading to a tenfold increase over current levels by 2031-32.

According to the 2016 edition of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and International Atomic Energy Agency joint report on uranium resources, production and demand (the 'Red Book'), India's known conventional uranium resources - reasonably assured resources and inferred - were estimated to be 181 606 tU as of January 2015. Uranium mills currently operate at Jadugudah and Turamdih, both in Jharkand, and Tummalapalle in Andhra Pradesh. India produced 385 tU in 2015. The AMD claimed to have established domestic uranium resources of 232,315 tU as of November last year.

India operates 22 nuclear reactors, eight of which are fuelled by indigenous uranium. Fourteen reactors are under international safeguards and use imported uranium. Six units - four indigenously designed pressurised heavy water reactors, a fast breeder reactor and a Russian-designed pressurised water reactor - are currently under construction. Construction is planned to begin on 19 further units within the next few years, including ten indigenously designed PHWRs which are scheduled to start up by 2031. Agreements envisage the import of uranium up to 2020, Singh said.
India plans tenfold uranium output growth

 

[lcafanboy]

India’s nuclear weapons program to get a boost as uranium output to increase 10x by 2031-32
By Sreejiraj Eluvangal on 2017-12-22
ENERGY FIRST ON ULTRA SOCIETY

India has plans to increase the output of uranium — the key fuel used in its nuclear weapons program — by ten times by 2031-32 and achieve self-sufficiency, the Department of Atomic Energy said.

India is estimated to have 232,315 tons of uranium contained in deposits of 273,956 tons of tiiuranium octoxide.

Even though the amount of uranium deposits is known, the actual quantity of uranium produced by India from indigenous sources at present is a state secret, as it can be used to calculate the quantity of nuclear weapons that the country makes.

India cannot use imported uranium to make weapons due to restrictions placed by the exporters of the nuclear fuel, and has to depend on indigenous production to fuel its weapons program.

It also uses part of the domestically mined uranium to produce power. Out of about 7,000 MW of nuclear power produced in India, 2400 MW is fuelled by domestic uranium.

India aims to increase the output of uranium soon, the government said.

“Uranium Corporation of India has made a detailed plan in line with DAE’s vision to achieve self sufficiency in Uranium production achieving nearly ten-fold rise in next 15 years (by 2031-32),” the DAE said.

“UCIL has outlined a plan for massive expansion which includes plan to maintain sustained supply from existing facilities, capacity expansion of some existing units and construction of new production centres (mines and plants) in different parts of the country.”

Due to a historical difficulties getting hold of uranium and the relative abundance of thorium deposits in the country, India plans to switch its power generation to thorium by 2050 under its ‘Phase 3’ nuclear program.

India has invested much into developing nuclear reactors based on thorium, of which it has nearly 1 mln tons. It is considered a world leader in Thorium-based technology.

To move to thorium, India has a three-stage nuclear program.

First, it will use normal uranium in Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors.

Then it will use plutonium obtained from these in Fast Breeder Reactors. These Fast Breeder Reactors will create Uranium-233.

In the third stage, Uranium-233 will be combined with Thorium in advanced reactors that are expected to provide the country with enough electricity for 10,000 years.

As of now, India is on the cusp of moving from stage 1 to stage 2. The first fast-breeder reactor (PFBR) — which has been in the making for 30 years — is scheduled to go live in January.

The total production of thorium ores in India has been on the rise in the last three years.

The country produced 80 tons in the year ended March 2015, 330 tons each in the subsequent two years.

Thorium is being produced by Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), a PSU under DAE, at Chavara, Kerala; Manavalakurichi, Tamil Nadu and Orissa Sand Complex, Odisha.
India's nuclear weapons program to get a boost as uranium output to increase 10x by 2031-32 | Ultra News

Now when will Pakistan start Randi-Rona..................

 

[Ironhide]

We should have started the expansion many years back, Khangress party is both incompetent and Anti-National.

 

[Shashank]

We should have started the expansion many years back, Khangress party is both incompetent and Anti-National.

When it comes to material for Bombs we have more than enough. We were little slow in getting material for civilian use. Hope our technology for use of thorium in reactor is good enough.