Date set for fuel reactor

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, Sept. 2: India’s first commercial nuclear reactor designed to generate more fuel than it burns and drive the country closer towards harnessing its vast thorium reserves will become operational in September next year, a senior atomic energy official has said. The 500MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, is intended to be a forerunner of a series of home-grown reactors that are expected to dramatically boost India’s nuclear power generation capacity over the next three decades. “The construction of the PFBR is nearly complete,” said Rattan Kumar Sinha, chairman of the atomic energy commission on August 23. “But as this is a new type of reactor, the regulatory processes could take a year. We expect the reactor to become operational by September 2014.”http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130903/jsp/nation/story_17305278.jsp#.UiVV4xmEPgo