IGCAR develops radiation shield for nuclear plants

[Bhai Zakir]

IGCAR develops radiation shield for nuclear plants


Scientist and Director of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), S C Chetal on Wednesday said the centre has developed “ferro bora,” a new, low-cost material that shields ionizing radiation in nuclear power reactors.

Inaugurating the 19th national symposium on Radiation Physics at Mamallapuram near here, he said the new material will improve the radiation shielding mechanism in the nuclear reactors. “Radiation physics has become an indispensable part of modern science and has wide applications in medicine, agriculture, industry, food processing etc,” he added.

Seeking to dispel wrong notions about radiation, he said disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima have created fear-psychosis among people and the word radiation has become synonymous with fear. He said in several places in Kerala, exposure to radiation is “far higher than what we allow in Nuclear power plants”. He said “over estimating the damage by radiation could be more damaging” to the people’s psyche.

Expressing concern over the continued opposition to Kudankulam Nuclear power station, he said: “It is this unfounded fear plus misinformation about radiation that is responsible for anti-nuclear movements worldwide.”

The IGCAR chief also regretted that a wrong impression has been created among the people that “scientific experts are tools of the nuclear industry.” “Let us not be over-conservative in our radiation regulations as such an approach is more a liability than an asset,” he urged.

Prabhat Kumar, Chairman and MD of “Bhavini,” the special purpose vehicle used in building second generation 500 mw prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam, said while existing designs of all the Nuclear reactors in India ensure that most radioactive materials were “contained”, efforts were on to see “how not to allow the radioactive tritium from coming out with the heavy water”.

“It is possible to filter out all radioactive particles that could affect the human body and see they are contained within the reactor itself,” Prabhat Kumar assured.


IGCAR develops radiation shield for nuclear plants

 

[The A-5]

Hello,

Was the 500mW PFBR at Kalpakkam designed & built in India?

 

[Kloitra]

Hello,

Was the 500mW PFBR at Kalpakkam designed & built in India?

Generally, no nation would share FBR with other as it can be used to produce fissile material. All commercial reactors are non-breeders. So yes, we designed and built it in India.

 

[perplexed]

Generally, no nation would share FBR with other as it can be used to produce fissile material. All commercial reactors are non-breeders. So yes, we designed and built it in India.

depends.. almost all countries have different Breeder tech. Most of the countries which have developed Breeder Tech have somehow developed a process where the by-products are adulterated with enough actinides so that it can't be used in nuclear bombs.. but only for power generation..

However, the breeder tech which India has developed not only produces fissile material in highly enriched form but according to some unconfirmed sources produces Tritium as well which is one of the crucial component of thermonuclear bombs. Some sources have even said that the nuclear plants which are outside the IAEA safeguards together produces one of the largest quantities of tritium in the world..

It is due to the above reason that USA wanted to bring almost all nuclear facilities in India under IAEA safeguards and virtually curb our indigenous breeder tech.. !!

 

[mastaan]

depends.. almost all countries have different Breeder tech. Most of the countries which have developed Breeder Tech have somehow developed a process where the by-products are adulterated with enough actinides so that it can't be used in nuclear bombs.. but only for power generation..

However, the breeder tech which India has developed not only produces fissile material in highly enriched form but according to some unconfirmed sources produces Tritium as well which is one of the crucial component of thermonuclear bombs. Some sources have even said that the nuclear plants which are outside the IAEA safeguards together produces one of the largest quantities of tritium in the world..

It is due to the above reason that USA wanted to bring almost all nuclear facilities in India under IAEA safeguards and virtually curb our indigenous breeder tech.. !!

Well said... Forget advanced breeder reactors, even for simpler ancient past generation reactors, ask German, Russian and American Physicists sitting outside Dhruva and Cyrus reactors (Research reactors of BARC Mumbai), who are trying to assess and figure out "our exact enrichment and by-products generation capability" (as most of big names actually do a lot of their research work in Mumbai) (and the by products are not only enriched uranium or as stated, (allegedly) tritium, but arguably more complex and unstable compounds) ... US desperately has been trying to stop us in funny ways since 1970s, but Indian Nuclear Physicists & diplomatic establishments have really kept this critical backbone of our nuclear science competence secret, safe and pristine free...

FBRs have been and will continue to be built in India and I really don"t see we ever needing any assistance there and I think answers on such questions largely will always remain general and will never get into specifics...

 

[cloud_9]

Hello,

Was the 500mW PFBR at Kalpakkam designed & built in India?

Lessons Learnt from Manufacturing and Erection Experiences of Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor[pg. 6]
Progress in Sodium Technology