India Has Almost Finished the World’s First Advanced Thorium Nuclear Reactor
11th July 2017
The Kalpakkam reactor will generate 500 megawatts of electricity by using the element thorium instead of uranium, which is rare in India. The only other commercial fast breeder nuclear reactor in history is located in Russia, but this uses uranium instead of thorium. Fast breeder reactors would revolutionize nuclear power because they’re capable of generating more nuclear fuel then they consume while generating less nuclear waste.
“[F]ast reactors can help extract up to 70 percent more energy than traditional reactors and are safer than traditional reactors while reducing long lived radioactive waste by several fold,” Yukiya Amano, Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the Times of India.