India starts third new reactor this year: Kaiga Unit 4 goes critical.

[NNadir]

With unit 4 of the Kaiga nuclear power plant in Karnataka state reaching first criticality on 27 November, India now has 20 nuclear power reactors in operation. Environmental approval for the construction of a new six-unit plant in Maharastra state has also been given.

Kaiga 4 is a 220 MWe indigenously-designed pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR), similar to the three units already in operation at the site.

The reactor will be synchronized to the grid after carrying out certain mandatory tests early next month, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) said. Electricity generated by Kaiga 4 will be supplied to the southern Indian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Pudducherry.

Kaiga 4 is the third nuclear power reactor to have started operating this year – the others being units 5 and 6 of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (RAPP).

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-First_criticality_for_fourth_Kaiga_unit-2911104.html">First criticality for fourth Kaiga unit

PHWR are reactors that are moderated by so called "heavy water" which is water in which essentially all of the hydrogen has been substituted by the deteurium isotope. Deuterium has one of the lowest neutron capture cross sections observed in the Table of Nuclides only helium-4 with a cross section of zero has a lower capture cross section. This allows for extraordinary neutron economy, and will allow India to exploit its huge thorium reserves, with which every heavy water reactor is a breeder reactor, albeit with a long doubling time.

As nuclear reactors go, at 220 MWe, the reactor is extremely small - most modern reactors are between 4 to 6 times larger, but small reactors has been a feature of the Indian nuclear program.

Even though the reactor is very small, it can easily outproduce all of the solar capacity in California, built over the last four decades. In 2009, the entire State of California produced http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/electricity/electricity_generation.html">846 GWh of solar electricity, as compared to 116,716 GWh of dangerous natural gas produced electricity in that dangerous fossil fuel dependent state.

California dumps all of its dangerous natural gas waste into its favorite waste dump, Earth's atmosphere.

All of California's solar installations, constructed over a period of 50 years, thus produce the equivalent of a 96 MWe plant of any type operating at 90% of capacity utilization since there are still, as always, 24*365.25 = 8766 hours in a year.

Thus to produce as much energy as the entire State of California produces with solar energy, the Indian reactor needs to operate at 100*96/200 = 43% capacity, something it is relatively easy to do, since nuclear reactors typically operate at between 80% - 100% capacity utilization.

The difference between California solar energy and Indian nuclear energy is, of course, that nuclear output is reliable.

[thunder rising]

1. Dissing solar ain't gonna win you many friends. I would like to see nukes being built, but not with

the same regulatory scheme. The CEOs of the power companies have more power than anybody about keeping them up.

[NNadir]

3. I couldn't care less. Solar is a very dirty and expensive form of energy basically being

paid for by robbing the poor and giving tax breaks to the rich.

It's a flat failure and a terrible waste of money and will never be as clean, as safe, as reliable or as inexpensive as nuclear energy.

I am not here to win friends. I am here to tell the truth.

[Kolesar]

4. ...And in alternating posts, you are here to hurl insults and profanities

[thunder rising]

7. Google this: "turkey point hoffman" Then tell me how safe they are.

[Nederland]

9. Ok I Google it

Sounds to me like a plant worker refused to restart a reactor because he believed it was unsafe to do so. He resigned, got sued to return his bonus, etc. etc.

Bottom line: No-one died. No-one got sick. No radiation released. In fact, nothing happened at all.

This is your big objection to nuclear power? A civil lawsuit involving bonus money and no release of radiation? Really?

Here's a hint. You want to really scare people, tell them to Google "Three Mile Island" or "Chernobyl". Much more effective...

[Kolesar]

10. Three engineers were convicted of criminal charges, mr. smug...eom

[Nederland]

12. So what?

Is it your contention that any industry that has three or more people convicted of criminal charges should be eliminated? Please, every sector of the economy would be shut down. Really, what is your point?

[Kolesar]

13. You have nothing to do with your time than poke and prod at forum members

*That* is my point

[Nederland]

15. Now I get it

I hope you can understand my confusion though. I was under the impression that you were trying to make a point regarding nuclear power. Silly me.

[Kolesar]

2. A linguistic exercise "designed" to make readers feel guilty and defeated

Such is the author's pathetic power trip.

Ask him to explain how his offspring don't destroy the planet by their presence. They don't live in an underground hut made of old tires with no heat.

[NNadir]

5. Actually, kiddie, I've BEEN to India. I've seen the huts made of carboard and plastic outside...

of Mumbai.

Maybe you find that amusing. I don't.

The average Indian - including the Indians who live in its middle class lives on about 700 watts of continuous average power from all energy sources, as compared to 12,000 for the average smug American who burns endless fossil fuels but pretends - out of complete ignorance - that all of his or her energy comes from magic solar cells and magic wind plants.

In fact, wind and solar are trivial forms of energy everywhere on the planet, and they exist solely for the benefit of self-delusion by yuppie brats with no educations who exist with extreme moral indifference.

The solar faith is a cult that refuses to recognize the fact that the entire solar industry can't even run the servers dedicated to telling us how wonderful solar is.

It's, um, night time, and somehow I don't think that our resident anti-nukes are running their mouthes here using the batteries they're always fantasizing about.

Have a nice evening.

[Kolesar]

6. smug

magic solar cells and magic wind plants.trivial self-delusion yuppie brats
a cult
running their mouthes
fantasizing

[thunder rising]

8. Generic meds are obviously not as good as the name brand ... just say'n

[Confusious]

11. As someone who takes them

Yes they are.

Shouldn't talk about things you don't know about.

Just sayin'

[AlecBGreen]

14. could you elaborate on this

"(Deuterium's low neutron capture cross sections) allows for extraordinary neutron economy, and will allow India to exploit its huge thorium reserves"

I get that heavy water is very good at capturing free neutrons; how will this make Thorium a more attractive fuel?

"...with which every heavy water reactor is a breeder reactor, albeit with a long doubling time."

Not sure what that means. And yes, I realize Google is a powerful tool but you have way of explaining a complicated topic that I know little about in an easy-to-understand way. Thanks for your time & effort.

[joshcryer]

16. It transmutes thorium to U-233, which is fissile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle

Thorium by definition is not particularly fissile (except for Th-231), and it sits in repositories waiting to be used for something, and we have few industrial uses for the stuff. India has a lot of thorium.

They're transitioning to a thorium fuel cycle over the decades because it will ensure them energy security.

[NNadir]

17. Nuclei are not all created equal in terms of their yield of neutrons.

Generally the yield of neutrons per fission for the common fissile nuclei, U-235 and Pu-239 is not high enough under <em>thermal</em> - conditions making up for losses of neutrons absorbed in fission products, reactor materials and coolant - to make at least one fissionable atom from a fertile atom (for instance U-238, Pu-240, Th-232), unless the spectrum is "fast." U-233, by contrast, which is made from thorium does have sufficient neutrons both in thermal and fast spectra to accomplish this.

"Fast" is considered to be neutrons with energies of around 1 MeV.

"Thermal" is considered to be neutrons with energies close to the energy of molecules in a gas, generally taken as 0.0253 MeV.

The ratio of fertile atoms rendered fissile to the ratio of atoms fissioned is called the breeding ratio. If this ratio exceeds one, the reactor is said to be a breeder.

Typically the number of neutrons released per fission - in order to overcome neutron losses to materials, coolant, fission products and leakage needs to be higher than around 2.35.

If you have access to a scientific library, some nice graphics are found in Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 2032–2046 that show these points