Soon, nuke reactors in populated areas!

Future nuclear power reactors could come up near populated areas as scientists develop newer and safer technologies to generate clean energy.

The much-awaited Advanced Heavy Water Reactor may be the first reactor to come up in populated areas like the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.

The pre-licensing review of the technology demonstrator reactor has been completed by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and BARC is making a case for reducing the exclusion zone for the reactor.

"We may be able to reduce the exclusion zone around the reactor. Now it is 1.6 km radius from the reactor. But it (the proposed reduction) has to be approved by the Regulatory Board," BARC Director Srikumar Banerjee told PTI on the sidelines of the Convocation Ceremony of Indian Agriculture Research Institute in New Delhi on Friday.

A relaxation in the exclusion zone will enable to have the reactor in populated places. Right now no the reactors cannot be placed there, he said.

He dismissed suggestions that the project has been delayed as it has gone back to the design board.

"Design is more or less frozen," Banerjee said.

The civil nuclear sector is poised for a boom period and India plans to generate 20,000 MW power from atomic plants by 2020.

Banerjee said construction of the AHWR, which has a lifespan of 100 years, is expected to begin in the 11th Plan period.

"We have not announced the construction yet because we are looking for a suitable site," he said.

Banerjee said the final objective was to have atomic reactors in populated area.

"We are not going to immediately put but this is our final objective. Because if every reactor requires 1.6 km of exclusion zone then the number of sites available are not too many," he said.

A brain child of Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar, the AHWR will be a technology demonstrator reactor and take about five to six years to complete.

The reactor, which will cost between Rs five and six crore per mega watt, has a life span of 100 years and has several innovative safety measures.

India has a four-phased roadmap for utilisation of thorium resources which includes development of AHWRs, Compact High Temperature Reactor and an accelerator driven fast breeder reactors.