India Seeks Energy Security from Thorium
- Wednesday, 09 November 2011
Background
In early November 2011, India announced ambitious plans to exploit the nation’s abundant thorium reserves as a low-carbon, less radioactive, alternative to uranium. The new “safer” power plant, to come online by the end of the decade, will promote Indian energy autonomy and represents a significant opportunity, within which Australia should aim to create synergies.
Comment
Energy security has previously been identified by Future Directions International as one of India’s critical national security challenges; it has an estimated 400 million people without access to electricity. To achieve sustained economic growth, a number of energy challenges must be resolved, including: securing long-term reliable sources of energy, meeting electricity supply and demand to satisfy the nation’s rising industries and rural settlements, and developing new energy infrastructure. Proponents, including the Director of the Mumbai-based Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Ratan Kumar Sinha, argue that the future of Indian energy, and the country’s prosperity, relies on thorium. They cite the compound’s many advantages over uranium.
The waste by-products produced by the thorium fuel cycle have a significant advantage over those produced by traditional uranium power reactors. Unlike uranium, thorium does not produce plutonium, which is a key element in the nuclear proliferation risk.
Additionally, thorium is more efficient and abundant than uranium. It is a particularly attractive prospect for India, which has minimal quantities of uranium but around 20 per cent of the world’s known thorium reserves. Uranium generally requires treatment in centrifuges, a time- and cost-intensive process. Thorium, however, does not require enrichment and can be used, almost in its entirety, in its raw form, allowing the compound to generate 40 times more energy per tonne than uranium.
Some analysts contend that scope exists for thorium to eliminate the safety and security concerns of nuclear energy, a particularly salient consideration in the post-Fukushima environment. Within the thorium fuel cycle, neutrons could potentially be injected by an Accelerator Driven System, which would enable the operator to control the process. In reality, the system eliminates the chance of a meltdown, by providing the operator with this level of control.
Despite its many strengths, thorium remains unproven on a commercial scale. Various national governments and members of the private sector have attempted to harness the technology since the 1950s, with varying degrees of success. Thorium remains largely a next generation nuclear technology, with many developments still at a theoretical stage. Analysts cite prohibitive concerns, including the expense and a lack of technical understanding, as potential hurdles to large-scale adoption. Further, although viewed as a “safer” alterative, thorium is a radioactive element, with the inherent environmental and health challenges associated with the nuclear power industry.
If India were to successfully negotiate the current issues within the industry and produce a viable reactor, the implications for the country’s diplomatic and economic credentials would be significant and consistent with India’s aspirations to great power status.
Thorium technology could be exported to a number of energy conscious states, both within the region and in the West. Many states with existing nuclear power capability could potentially retrofit existing infrastructure to accept thorium fuel, allaying safety concerns and improving economic efficiency. The lower weight and toxicity of thorium waste could potentially increase safety margins and result in lower operating costs.
For states planning to generate nuclear power, such as Iran, India’s major strategic ally, the use of thorium represents a less-antagonistic platform, when compared to the dangers of proliferation from traditional uranium power generation.
Perhaps most significantly for Australia, the use of thorium presents a substantial opportunity to strengthen the strategic dimension the bi-lateral relationship with India. Energy has long been a leitmotif of the Indian-Australian partnership, with around ten per cent of coal exports and an emerging quantity of hydrocarbon exports destined for India. Australia’s large thorium reserves, around twenty-five per cent of the world’s reserves, could provide India with a diversity of supply, a key tenet of India’s energy security policy. For this to be realised, Australia must engage in a concerted diplomatic and legislative campaign to maximise potential economic prospects.
Synergies between India and Australia could include increasing collaboration in research and development, engaging new markets, and burden sharing on infrastructure costs. Co-operation would be of mutual benefit to both states by fostering international rapport and increasing economic opportunities; while simultaneously reducing global carbon emissions and promoting energy security.
Liam McHugh
Manager
Northern Australia and Energy Security Research Programmes
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