US EPA

1441097 

Journal Article 

Design and development of the AHWR - the Indian thorium fuelled innovative nuclear reactor 

Sinha, RK; Kakodkar, A 

2006 

1 

Nuclear Engineering and Design
ISSN: 0029-5493
EISSN: 1872-759X 

236 

7-8 

683-700 

10.1016/j.nucengdes.2005.09.026 

WOS:000237235400002 

India has chalked out a nuclear power program based on its
domestic resource position of uranium and thorium. The first stage started with setting up the
Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) based on natural uranium and pressure tube technology. In
the second phase, the fissile material base will be multiplied in Fast Breeder Reactors using the
plutonium obtained from the PHWRs. Considering the large thorium reserves in India, the future
nuclear power program will be based on thorium-U-233 fuel cycle. However, there is a need for the
timely development of thorium-based technologies for the entire fuel cycle. The Advanced Heavy
Water Reactor (AHWR) has been designed to fulfill this need. The AHWR is it 300 MW,, vertical,
pressure tube type, heavy water moderated, boiling light water cooled natural circulation
reactor. The fuel consists of (Th-Pu)O-2 and (Th-U-233)O-2 pins. The fuel cluster is designed to
generate maximum energy out of U-233, which is bred in situ from thorium and has a slightly
negative void coefficient of reactivity. For the AHWR, the well-proven pressure tube technology
has been adopted and many passive safety features, consistent with the international trend, have
been incorporated. A distinguishing feature which makes this reactor unique, from other
conventional nuclear power reactors is the fact that it is designed to remove core heat by
natural circulation. under normal operating conditions, eliminating the need of pumps. In
addition to this passive feature, several innovative passive safety systems have been
incorporated in the design, for decay heat removal under shut down condition and mitigation of
postulated accident conditions. The design of the reactor has progressively undergone
modifications and improvements based on the feedbacks from the analytical and the experimental
R&D. This paper gives the details of the current design of the AHWR. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All
rights reserved.