India has limited resources of uranium, but a proper recycling of this radioactive element can extend the fuel supply to 10,000 years. A study presented at the national conference on emerging trends in nuclear and chemical technology held at Gitam University, Hyderabad, on Tuesday, states that uranium resources could last just 270 years if the present annual consumption is taken into account. Recycling of uranium and plutonium will help extend this fuel cycle to 10,000 years, thus providing nuclear energy to the country almost in perpetuity.
Faridar Rahman Choudhury, of University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, said once uranium fuel was used in a reactor, it could be treated and put into another reactor as a fresh fuel. “This cycle can be repeated several times. Once all the energy is finally extracted from the fuel, the waste that is left over decays to harmlessness within a few hundred years, rather than a million years as with standard nuclear waste,” he explained.
Mr Choudhury said the reprocessing and recycling of uranium and plutonium helped in an efficient utilisation of uranium resources. This was important, as India had limited uranium resources. Uranium recycling in pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) in India was different from the one followed by other countries. PHWRs had a lower burn-up and provided additional advantage, he stated.
Mr Choudhury claimed that the uranium recycling technology used super-critical carbon dioxide to dissolve and recover the metal, rather than organise solvents and aqueous acids. “It is, therefore, claimed to be more environment friendly. It reduces the volume of second-generation toxic waste effluent.” He added: “The depleted uranium recycled material is converted into oxide for the production of chemical catalysts.” It could be melted and cast to manufacture commercial products, including medical isotope containers and collimators, he said.