Closed fuel cycle seen as key to unlocking India's thorium reserves
A senior physicist says India's closed nuclear fuel cycle can reduce waste and enable thorium-based energy.
India's push to develop a closed nuclear fuel cycle could be the gateway to tapping its vast thorium reserves, while also shrinking the volume of radioactive waste that needs long-term management, according to particle physicist Naba Kumar Mondal.
Speaking at GITAM Deemed to be University, Mondal — a NASI senior scientist at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata — outlined how reprocessing and recycling spent fuel is central to the country's long-term atomic energy strategy.
He described India's three-stage nuclear programme: uranium-fuelled reactors in the first stage, plutonium-based fast breeder reactors in the second, and thorium-derived uranium-233 (U-233) fuel in the third. The recent criticality of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) was highlighted as a significant milestone for the second stage, since such reactors are designed to create additional fissile material and convert thorium into U-233.
Mondal also touched on advanced designs such as molten salt reactors and their possible role in the thorium-U-233 cycle. High-temperature reactors, he added, could support low-carbon hydrogen production.
The event was attended by GITAM University Centre for Interdisciplinary Research Distinguished Professor G. Ravi Kumar and GITAM School of Science Director C. Kavitha, among others.