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India’s PFBR attains criticality at last
Prime Minister Narendra Modi proclaimed it “a proud moment for India” when on April 6 the 500-MWe, sodium-cooled Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) achieved initial criticality. This milestone, which comes some 22 years after the continually delayed PFBR project began, marks India’s entrance into the second stage of its three-stage nuclear program, which has the ultimate goal of supporting the country’s nuclear power program with its significant thorium reserves.
Athena A. Sagadevan, Sunil S. Chirayath
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 3 | March 2022 | Pages 428-436
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1922259
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Until a long-term solution is finalized, interim storage of sufficiently cooled spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies in dry casks is the predominant practice. Since these dry casks can contain approximately 160 kg of reactor-grade plutonium, they require safeguards monitoring. Results of a simulation study conducted on the design development and analysis of a remote monitoring system (RMS) are presented. The goal of the study was to determine the suitability of this RMS to meet the SNF monitoring objectives. MCNP simulations of a dry cask with all its contents and a set of simulations with one or two removed SNF assemblies were performed to test the detection capabilities of the RMS. The removed assemblies were substituted with dummy assemblies to simulate concealment. The studies showed that the RMS design is suitable to monitor and detect the removal of even a single SNF assembly from the cask.