Thorium and India's Energy Security

Uranium as a thorn in India’s Foreign Policy

India’s  External Affairs Minister, S. M. Krishna is in Australia this week alongside India’s President attending the CHoGM. He has reiterated once again that Australia should sell uranium to India. But Australia has also said that India must sign the NPT.  This is one stance that India has a leg to stand on in the international arena;  but India  has done little to articulate the fact that the NPT is weaker than India's history and  code of non proliferation. 

Australia’s insistence on India signing the NPT is very imperious and spanks of rank racism, given Australia's main trading partner China has nuclear weapons, is a massive proliferator of war machinery world wide, abuses human rights and uses torture and harassment of state dissidents as  a tool of state policy and importantly threatens both Tibet and India with its nuclear arsenal and its veto vote in the UN.

Equally laughable is how India  has finally mastered the art if milking a cow, throwing away the milk and then going outside to beg for milk. 

The crux of the issue is India’s Energy Security. 

With2/3^rd of the world’s thorium it could develop an alternative programme to Uranium, but it has yet to get a viable prototype off the ground.  This absence of foresight is costing India dearly and hobbling India’s growth into the 21^st century.

Thorium as a viable alternative to India’s Energy Shortfall and Security.

Additionally, from a Climate Change Perspective, Governments worldwide are plumping for nuclear power rather than renewable energy to counter global warming.  However, (i) the huge potential for radioactive contamination and (ii) the fast vanishing supplies of high-quality uranium ore. Another alternative, albeit nuclear, was rejected by the European Commission in 1999 and 2000: a much safer way to produce nuclear energy called 'accelerator-driven system (ADS)' using a much less radioactive substance, Thorium.

·        Accelerator-driven systems

In an 'accelerator-driven system' (ADS), a very strong external beam of protons is needed to trigger and maintain the heat-generating reactions. If a reaction appears to be getting out of control, you simply switch the proton beam off. In an ADS, the chain reaction which can become an atomic bomb or melt down a conventional reactor, could only occur through utter negligence or sabotage by an insider. A fault or, for instance, a bomb, would halt the reaction instantly. On the other hand, a terrorist bomb on a conventional reactor could contaminate land and people for hundreds, may be thousands of miles. Professor Egil Lillestol* estimates that the technology would require only 550 million euros and 15 years to develop. One major remaining problem is how to safely contain the molten lead (highly corrosive) used in the ADS process.

Thorium Supply and Demand

There is three times as much thorium as uranium in the Earth's crust. It produces 250 times more energy than uranium. Thorium waste loses its radioactivity in hundreds of years rather than tens of thousands. So what's the problem? Australia has the  world's largest reserves of thorium, alongside  India, which is sitting on about a quarter, has already planned its transition to ADS-thorium reactors. Do the math, that would make Thorium based reactors heaven sent towards Energy Security and a Global shift away from Uranium. 

Global Reserves of Thorium:

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf62.html

India Vs the Rest 20 years from Now:

Some analysts believe that the prime objection to global investment in ADS-thorium technology is more political than scientific. The countries which currently supply or process uranium like Australia ore are, understandably, not supportive. Nor are the countries which are still jealously guarding nuclear-uranium know-how. Those which have ADS-thorium know-how are also, to some degree, keeping it to themselves and working on different prototypes rather than pooling their expertise. Developing ADS-thorium technology within a relevant global warming timescale will demand (i) an acceptance that global power balance will shift from oil and uranium-owning nations to thorium-owning nations, and (ii) an unprecedented level of international cooperation and sharing.

Both China and Pakistan have little in the way of Thorium and could rely on 3rd parties to supply its requirements. That make make India a more strategic player in years to come.

That could leave India in  position of strength once the ADS-Thorium prototype is cracked by them. That would shift the entire power equation into India’s Thorium resevers, which today is estimated to be 60% of the world’s supply. Uranium exporting countries would do well to supply India’s requirement today to have an equitable position in Thorium sourced Energy tomorrow.