A talk on “The Thorium Driven Energy Amplifier”

Prof. Carlo Rubbia, 1984 Nobel Laureate in Physics delivered a talk on “The Thorium Driven Energy Amplifier” at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) on 11th February 2008. Addressing the scientists and engineers at the Centre, Prof. Rubbia said that the world is concerned with the conventional power plants using coal/gas fuel because of the green house gasses that are generated by them. It is recognised world wide that nuclear reactor systems are one of the better alternatives to overcome these issues. However, the current generation of nuclear reactors is also producing long-lived radioactive waste. Hence, nuclear reactors, which will solve the radioactive waste problems, have to be designed. Prof. Rubbia proposed such a system called “Energy Amplifier (EA)” or “Accelerator Driven Sub-critical System (ADS)”. In this concept, a high energy proton beam from an accelerator, striking a lead or lead bismuth target, provides neutrons to the sub-critical reactor. In particular, a plutonium-thorium fuelled sub-critical reactor combined with the accelerator is an excellent choice. Prof. Rubbia gave an illuminating talk on one such design and its fuel cycle aspects. He showed that based on his design, the waste generation can be reduced over a period of time to as low as naturally available thorium. Thorium fuelled reactors are also proliferation resistant.

India, as part of its three-stage nuclear programme, will be utiliziing uranium-233 produced by conversion of thorium in fast reactors. The new concept of ADS based energy amplifiers not only gives energy but also can permit a growth in the installed capacity in the third-stage of the Indian nuclear programme. Please find attached a few photographs.

 

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