Posted on 03/11/2006 10:01:23 PM PST by CarrotAndStick
MUMBAI: The International Atomic Energy Agency's Co-ordinated Research Project has described the Indian nuclear data on thorium as unique and of high quality and its contribution very valuable for the international nuclear community.
The nuclear data on thorium is much better than the six-decade data on natural uranium U-238 in both light water and pressurised heavy water reactors.
"With these new evaluations done through the CRP on thorium, India has joined select band of criticality safety benchmark," Andrej Trkov, IAEA Scientific Secretary of Coordinated Research Project (CRP), said.
The main Indian contribution is completion of the KAMINI reactor benchmark which has already been accepted for the prestigious Handbook on International Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments, Trkov said and added a benchmark on post-irradiation examination of irradiated thorium fuel is still in preparation and will be completed as part of this activity.
The CRP on "Evaluated Nuclear Data for the Thorium-Uranium Fuel Cycle" was organised by IAEA to produce the library of evaluated neutron cross section data for transactinide nuclei important for the Th-U fuel cycle.
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India is willing to give up trade secrets?
KAMINI Experimental reactor
KAMINI (Kalpakkam Mini reactor) is a Uranium-233 fueled, low power (30 kW) research reactor designed and built jointly by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam. This reactor functions as a neutron source with a flux of 1012 neutrons/sqcm/second at core centre and facilitates carrying out neutron radiography of radioactive and non-radioactive objects and neutron activation analysis.
The reactor fuel is an alloy of uranium-233 and aluminium in the form of flat plates and assembled in an aluminum, casing to form the fuel subassemblies. The reflector is beryllium oxide encased in zircaloy sheath. Demineralized light water is used as moderator, coolant as well as shield. Cooling of the reactor core is by natural convection. Start up and regulation of the reactor is done by adjusting the positions of two safety control plates made of cadmium, which is sandwiched in aluminum. These plates are provided with gravity drop mechanism for rapid shut down of the reactor.
KAMINI is the only reactor in the world to use the Uranium-233 isotope for fuel.
http://www.dae.gov.in/publ/ar0203/chap3.pdf
India doesn't have a lot of uranium, but does have huge reserves of thorium.
Thorium-232, which isn't fissionable, can be converted with neutron bombardment to U-233, which is fissionable.
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Thorium is much more abundant in nature than uranium.
For someone who knows so much about fission, perhaps fissile would be more appropriate ? :)
Yeah, fissionable.
It's in the dictionary. Is that OK?
"fissionable" means that a high-energy neutron is required to cause fission. Example: U-238
The terms have distinct meanings in nuclear engineering.
By the way, the U-233 criticality benchmark data will certainly be welcome in the industry. There is very little available, and there is a significant amount of spent fuel in the DOE complex based on the U/Th cycle which needs to be disposed of.
Nope, its not OK. You clearly didn't know the difference like Royal Wulff does, or you would have said that instead of "its in the dictionary".
We need to keep the IAEA out of our Thorium reactors at any cost. This is state secret. I dont know why our government is fooling around with it.
You're right, I didn't know the difference, but then I'm not a nuclear engineer.
Thanks for pointing it out - I'm now smarter than I was yesterday.
Hey I didn't know the difference either until I read Wulff's post. I thought something either 'fizzes' or it does not, regardless of how hard it's struck. Appreciate Wulff's post for enlightening us.
Check out ThoriumPower.com
US project for thorium power development
Thanks for the link!
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