India extends life of Fast Breeder Test Reactor by 20 years

Mumbai: Indian nuclear scientists at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) have successfully extended the operational life of the 25-year-old 'workhorse' Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) by another 20 years.

"We have extended the life of the FBTR for another 20 years up to 2030 at 50% operational capacity," said Baldev Raj, director of IGCAR, Kalpakkam.

"The workhorse reactor has completed 25 successful years. It has given confidence to the Indian scientists to go ahead and build the first 500 MW (electrical) Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) which is under advanced stage of construction; and at least four more fast breeder reactors (FBRs) by 2020," he said.

So far, the FBTR has not only been a test –bed for developing technologies but also a training ground for the operation and maintenance staff of PFBR. It will be the cradle that will turn out trained manpower for India's Fast Breeder Reactor programme.

"FBTR uses Plutonium-carbide fuel while the PFBR will be using mixed oxide (Plutonium-uranium oxide) fuel. But the future fast breeders will use Uranium-Plutonium alloy or Uranium-Plutonium-Zirconium," Raj said.

In the coming years, the major thrust of FBTR will be large-scale irradiation of the advanced metallic fuels and core structural materials required for the next generation fast reactors with high breeding ratios, he added.