Fast moving to thorium

A new worldwide plutonium market brought to help India advance its ambitious thorium reactor programme.
the construction of the advanced heavy-water reactor (AHWR) — a 300 MWe, indigenously[in'di-ju-nus-lee(native,स्वदेसी)] designed, The single greatest hurdle[hur-d(u)l(problem,बाधा)], to answer the original question, is the critical shortage of fissile material.

A fissile material is one that can sustain a chain reaction upon bombardment by neutrons. India has very modest deposits of uranium and some of the world’s largest sources of thorium. In 1954, Homi Bhabha envisioned India’s nuclear power programme in three stages. In the first stage, heavy water reactors fuelled by natural uranium would produce plutonium; the second stage would initially be fuelled by a mix of the plutonium from the first stage and natural uranium. This uranium would transmute into more plutonium and once sufficient stocks have been built up, thorium would be introduced into the fuel cycle to convert it into uranium 233 for the third stage. In the final stage, a mix of thorium and uranium fuels the reactors. The thorium transmutes to U-233 as in the second stage, which powers the reactor.

After decades of operating pressurised heavy-water reactors (PHWR), India is finally ready to start the second stage at Kalpakkam is set to achieve criticality any day now and four more fast breeder reactors have been sanctioned, However, experts estimate that it would take India many more FBRs and at least another four decades before it has built up a sufficient fissile material inventory to launch the third stage. India cannot wait that long.

The obvious solution to India’s shortage of fissile material is to procure it from the international market. If India were to start purchasing plutonium and/or spent fuel, it would immediately alleviate[u'lee-vee,eyt(relieve,कम करना)] the pressure on countries like Japan and the U.K. who are looking to reduce their stockpile of plutonium.
The unseemly emphasis on thorium technology has many reasons. One, thorium reactors produce far less waste than present-day reactors. Two, they have the ability to burn up most of the highly radioactive and long-lasting minor actinides that makes nuclear waste from Light Water Reactors a nuisance[nyoo-sun(t)s(problem,परेशानी)] to deal with. Three, the minuscule[mi-nu,skyoo(small,थोडा)] waste that is generated is toxic for only three or four hundred years rather than thousands of years. Four, thorium reactors are cheaper And five, thorium reactors are significantly more proliferation-resistant than present reactors.The mainstreaming of thorium reactors worldwide thus offers an enormous[i'nor-mus(big,बड़ा)] advantage to proliferation-resistance as well as the environment.
It is clear that India stands to profit greatly from plutonium trading but what compelling[kum'pe-ling(forced,बाध्य)] reason does the world have to accommodate India? Delhi has shown no inclination[in-klu'ney-shun(tendency,इरादा)] to do so until now, but the world community would surely prefer that as much as possible of India’s plutonium was locked under safeguards.

The U.S. could perhaps emerge as the greatest obstacle to plutonium commerce. The challenge for Delhi is to convince Washington to sponsor rather than oppose such a venture.

Scientists predict that the impact of climate change will be worse on India. Advancing the deployment of thorium reactors by four to six decades via a plutonium market might be the most effective step towards curtailing[kur'teyl(control,नियंत्रण)] carbon emissions.

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