Kakodkar Advocates Early Thorium Use in India's Expanding Nuclear Programme

Gist Former Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar has advocated for introducing thorium-based fuel directly into India's expanding fleet of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors PHWRs . This proposal alters the traditional timeline of India's three-stage nuclear programme, which originally reserved large-scale thorium utilization for the later stages. For civil services aspirants, this shift highlights a critical adaptation in India's energy strategy, aiming to leverage abundant domestic thorium reserves faster to meet surging power demands over the next two decades. Background India follows a sequential, three-stage nuclear power programme designed to achieve long-term fuel self-reliance by eventually utilizing the country's vast domestic thorium reserves. The first stage employs Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors PHWRs fuelled by natural uranium , which produces plutonium as a byproduct in its spent fuel. The second stage utilizes Fast Breeder Reactors FBRs fuelled initially by this recovered plutonium mixed with depleted uranium , while using a blanket of Thorium-232 Th-232 to breed Uranium-233 U-233 . The third stage will employ advanced reactors fuelled by the U-233 generated in the previous stage, continuing to convert Th-232 into U-233…