I was wondering if people in India and America can think about how to develop biofuels as an energy source for the future. Biofuels can hold the promise of more environmentally friendly technology.
AHWR is still in papers only, the people working on the project are also doubting it's credibility. Natural Circulation and availability of Pu 239 and U233 are under doubt only. There is no point in wasting 2500 crore for the project. BARC is still not capable to operate Cirrus at full power (still it's operated at 40%) because of design flaws (fuel failure).
Nobody in the world except RUSSIA operates FBR, people are closeing down FBRs because of safety problems. How capable are we in high temperature metallurgy? Still we are not able to make a properly working LWR for Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV). From last 25 yrs we are working on AVLIS what happend to that?
Dr L. V. Krishnan's article is quite informative and one is pleased to learn that India's neutronic data about thorium in reactors is now accepted by the international community and IAEA. However work in this area is very slow despite the fact that India is the only country which has sustained interest. The first rods of thorium were inserted in the CIRUS reactor in the year 1960 and even to day we do not know if a thermal reactor can be built utilising thorium even to the extent of 10 to 15% as fuel. The BARC scientists are to be complimented for coming out with the design of AHWR concept and let us all hope early construction and operation of this unit will pave the way for thorium utilisation which we have been talking about since last 45 years.
