India Nuclear News and Discussion 4 July 2011

[chetak]

Uranium Corp gets state's nod for uranium processing.

The state-owned Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) has received clearance from the Karnataka government for setting up a uranium processing unit at Gogi village in Yadgir district. The UCIL, which started exploration for uranium in this village in 2007, has found rich deposits of high-grade uranium (U235) that is used to generate nuclear power.

The state high-level clearance committee (SHLCC) headed by Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa recently cleared the company’s application for mining uranium and processing, at an investment of Rs 550 crore.

The deputy commissioner of Yadgir district recently issued the no objection certificate to UCIL. However, the company is yet to be issued mining lease by the government.

“This is just a preliminary approval for their operations. Before starting work to mine the material, they have to complete the environment impact assessment report and seek approval from the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), Government of India. Only after that will their application for mining lease be processed by the state government,” H R Srinivasa, director, mines and geology, told Business Standard.

The deposits in Gogi are expected to last at least 15 years and the company wants to take up mining at a depth of 65 metres and excavate horizontally over an area of 109 acres, he said.

According to the initial estimates, the company plans to extract 500 tonnes of iron ore per day and recover 1 kg of uranium per tonne, which is double the yield from Kadapa mines in Andhra Pradesh. The UCIL has found a concentration of 400-450 gms in Jharkhand mines.

The company, apart from Gogi village, has also found rich deposits of uranium in Dharwad and Belgaum districts.

In Dharwad, the company has found uranium deposits in the shape of a bar, and are richer than the Gogi village, and the UCIL is likely to take up open cast mining, Srinivasa said.

He also allayed fears of the farmers in Gogi village that radiation levels in and around the uranium deposits are within the prescribed limits of the International Radiation Commission (IRC).

The uranium ore mining by UCIL is likely to yield royalty in excess of Rs 400 crore per annum for the department of mines and geology, he said.

However, the residents of Gogi village have raised serious doubts over the safety of conducting uranium mining in their village. During the public hearing conducted by Karnataka State Pollution Control Board on November 16, 2010, residents of Gogi and four nearby villages had raised objections for carrying out mining.

The UCIL has in its Environment Impact Assessment and Environmental Management Plan submitted to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board recently, said an Environment Engineering Cell, comprising officials of both the UCIL and BARC, will be constituted at the project site to implement various mitigation measures.

Just waiting for patkar and her band of paid agitators to land up with the usual lot of toxic foreign sponsored NGOs in tow.

[Vipul]

49,000 tonnes uranium deposit in Andhra; may rise threefold.

Scientists have found massive uranium deposits at the mines in Tummalapalle in Andhra Pradesh, a site that has the potential to emerge as the largest reserve of the key nuclear fuel in the world.

"At today's estimates, the uranium reserves are to the tune of 49,000 tonnes. We expect it to be three-fold of that," Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banerjee told reporters here.

Earlier, the uranium reserves were estimated at around 15,000 tonnes before further exploration by the Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD), a Department of Atomic Energy entity. If the identified deposits are in the excess of 1.5 lakh tonnes, the Tummalapalle mine could rank as the largest uranium reserve in the world.

"We expect the reserves to be much more and the site has the potential to become the world's largest uranium reserve," Banerjee said.
This discovery comes as a shot in the arm for the DAE which had estimated the uranium reserves in the country to be in the range of 1.7 lakh tonnes. AMD scientists expect uranium deposits to occur over the entire length of the 160-km Tummalapalle belt with a depth consistency of 400 metres.

The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) has begun mine opening operations for the uranium in 2007 and by this year end a mill to process the ore is expected to start functioning.

The UCIL has uranium mines and a mill to process the ore in Jharkhand and has identified deposits in Meghalaya and Karnataka. The uranium ore at Tummalapalle, though large, is not of a very rich variety.

The AMD has also identified about 4,000 tonnes of uranium deposits at Gogi in Gulbarga district of Karnataka, which is a very rich ore.

[gakakkad]

^^^ There goes any hopes of GE or westinghouse to get a reactor deal. If it turns out to be 135k tonnes we will be the 9 th largest in the world. B4 this discovery our reserves were estimated to be 80k tonnes . Ironically after this discovery we will have marginally more reserves than UNKIL.

[svinayak]

How many decades it is good for. Or at least 100 years

[Prem]

^^^ There goes any hopes of GE or westinghouse to get a reactor deal. If it turns out to be 135k tonnes we will be the 9 th largest in the world. B4 this discovery our reserves were estimated to be 80k tonnes . Ironically after this discovery we will have marginally more reserves than UNKIL.

The hunt is still on for discovering more of the "metal" in Desh and they aint done yet?.
Now we have realistic prospects of 170+150=320k Tons. Even if it cost more $, it provides strategic leverage .

[Virupaksha]

^^^ There goes any hopes of GE or westinghouse to get a reactor deal. If it turns out to be 135k tonnes we will be the 9 th largest in the world. B4 this discovery our reserves were estimated to be 80k tonnes . Ironically after this discovery we will have marginally more reserves than UNKIL.

nothing is happening to the reactor deal.

That is pay off for the reactor and NSG deals.

[Theo_Fidel]

If we use foreign reactors we will have to use foreign fuel bundles. They will not use our Uranium. So these reserves will only serve our own designs of which several have been started up over the past 6 months.

There is likely to be much more Uranium and other minerals for that matter out there.

Geologically India belongs to the South Africa & Australia block, very ancient and filled with minerals. India is by far the least explored, less than 5% by some accounts. Verily Kamadhenu.

In any case it is still a drop in the ocean.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a ... 248407.ece

It will still not be sufficient to meet India's needs: Banerjee

Tummalapalle in Andhra Pradesh could have one of the largest uranium reserves in the world. Recent studies have indicated that it could have a reserve of 1.5 lakh tonnes of the scarce material.

Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Srikumar Banerjee said: “Studies have already shown that the area had a confirmed reserve of 49,000 tonnes and recent surveys indicated that this figure could go up even three folds.”

[Amber G.]

How many decades it is good for. Or at least 100 years

Simple physics .. 200Mev per fission, and Avogadro's number..and reasonable value of efficiency ..
About 1 ton of U235 for 1GW year. ...Since U235 is about .7% of natural U.. about 140 tons per 1GW year.

[NRao]

Nuclear-boost: Uranium mine in Andhra could be among largest in world

"It`s confirmed that the mine has 49,000 tonnes of ore, and there are indications that the total quantity could be three times of that amount. If that be the case, it will become the largest uranium mine in the world. The plant is ready, and will begin production by the end of this year," Banerjee said.

India can buy out the Aussies?

[tejas]

Theo_Fidel boss, you truly are a jack of all trades I truly enjoy reading your posts on a variety of issues. you are right on the money. India and Australia are geologically similar. We therefore probably have a lot more uranium. Politics and PSU dinosaurs have combined to put us in the blackmail situation we are in today.

[Amber G.]

Meanwhile in the Canada Press...
India Canada partnership to sell nuclear reactors

And From Japan...
N-deal with Japan in limbo

[Prem]

I think South Korean , Indian and UKistan are builidng the similar capacity> Japanesse will not be the sole supplier of heavy vessels for Nuke plants for long.

[Theo_Fidel]

About 1 ton of U235 for 1GW year. ...Since U235 is about .7% of natural U.. about 140 tons per 1GW year.

It is typically a bit more than this as full burn up is never achieved though other fission also contributes some heat. 200-250 tonnes/year in a conventional reactor appears to be the thumb rule.

A deposit of 150,000 tones can generate 150,000/200 = 750 Gigawatt year of power total without breeding. After that it is a function of how quickly you want to draw it down. 50,000 MW capacity will run through it in 15 years or so.

[Shrinivasan]

TOILet has a major news on Indian Uranium reserves...
Nuclear-boost: Uranium mine in Andhra could be among largest in worldhttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 277652.cms

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has discovered that the upcoming uranium mine in Andhra Pradesh's Tumalapalli has close to 49,000 tonnes of uranium — three times the original estimate of the area`s deposits. In fact, there are indications that the total quantity could go up to 1.5 lakh tonnes, which would make it among the largest uranium mines in the world.

More flowers to be made into a garland!!!

[PratikDas]

This will provide the seed energy for more Thorium energy research, and we happen to have a good deal of that

[Theo_Fidel]

This will provide the seed energy for more Thorium energy research, and we happen to have a good deal of that

To do that you would need to separate out the U-235 away from U-238 which would trigger off a whole separate slew of issues. Much easier to straight breed Pu-239 from U-238. Though no one has been able to commercially do this yet. Every attempt has ended in disappointment.

Also much easier to separate Pu-239. BARC is trying to use Pu-239 to breed Thorium in PFBR Kalpakkam to U-233. Only need a couple of tonnes of Pu-239 for this. Needs to be seen how efficient the process ends up being.

[Sanku]

Wow, the last lame excuse for the sell out of a deal is also gone.

Penny drop -- I now realize what was the unholy hurry to ram through the deal even at the cost of openly buying parliamentary functions -- the Govt new that the despite deliberate pussy footing for a long time on nuclear mining, enough data was going to come into the public space which will reduce the "oh we dont have Nuclear material" whine to a Diggy raja variety statement.

Thus they needed to carry out the exercise and pull wool over Indian eyes before the information became public.

Imagine trying to sell the deal after 1-2 such discoveries? Trying to tell Indians that we must accept onerous restriction and spend tons of taxpayer money for questionable reactors which come without technology? That we must actually legitimize NSG and NPT and other attempts to castrate us after years of standing firm? That second class citizen was a status we must happily accept?

That now or never deal was in the making?

Jai ho -- these guys are really intelligent and very good at what they do.

[PratikDas]

This will provide the seed energy for more Thorium energy research, and we happen to have a good deal of that

To do that you would need to separate out the U-235 away from U-238 which would trigger off a whole separate slew of issues. Much easier to straight breed Pu-239 from U-238. Though no one has been able to commercially do this yet. Every attempt has ended in disappointment.

Also much easier to separate Pu-239. BARC is trying to use Pu-239 to breed Thorium in PFBR Kalpakkam to U-233. Only need a couple of tonnes of Pu-239 for this. Needs to be seen how efficient the process ends up being.

Thanks for the insight - genuinely appreciated. I was simply pointing out the fact that in the research phase most experiments consume more energy than they produce. The energy consumed needs to come from somewhere too. This new uranium find should help fuel uranium reactors to produce the required energy. I think that makes sense, but I could be wrong.

[Sanku]

I was simply pointing out the fact that in the research phase most experiments consume more energy than they produce.

In ALL phases all human activities consume more energy than they produce. This is law of conservation of energy coupled with engineering efficiency of form of energy transformation.

You probably want to say something else.

[PratikDas]

I was simply pointing out the fact that in the research phase most experiments consume more energy than they produce.

In ALL phases all human activities consume more energy than they produce. This is law of conservation of energy coupled with engineering efficiency of form of energy transformation.

You probably want to say something else.

No. I was spot on. Burning a kerosene lamp as an experiment with a match would produce more energy than what was consumed in making the match itself or my act of setting it alight, provided there's enough kerosene in the lamp to tilt the odds in my favour. There is no need to go back to the time of the dinosaurs that died to provide biomass that decayed into the crude oil which gave the kerosene.

[Amber G.]

Somewhat related as there was a discussion started in this thread. Also related to Uranium find..

According to recent article which is expected to make news headlines in mainstream media, recent measurements confirm that more than half of earths heat (44000 GigaWatts) comes from radioactivity and fission reactor in the earth's core. For perspective, this is a few times the total power production in the world.

There is quite a lot of Uranium/Thorium in the earth's crust.. and not to forget, about 4,000 GW comes from decaying K40... (remember all those discussion about radioactivity in a banana!)

Here is xpost from Physics dhaga...>>>

I hadn't realized that the discussion had moved here. The explanation for U/Th not sinking is as Amber said -- U/Th are lithophile rather than siderophile (metal loving). This is seen in foundries also. If you take a large vat of molten iron, the U and Th impurities migrate from the bulk and concentrate on the periphery (mostly on top!). The core of the earth has two parts, a solid one and a liquid one -- the liquid is mostly molten Fe and Ni, which has expelled the U and Th.

There is some speculation that there is a concentration of U in the solid core also. If true, this may form a natural reactor. There is no direct evidence yet -- the numbers have to add. The measured *total* heat flow from the earth is either 31 TW or 44 TW, depending on the method used. OTOH, several calculations now agree that the radiogenic component (U/Th/K decays in the mantle) contributes 19-20 TW. There are estimates that the "core reactor" may contribute as much as 6 TW. All of this can be sorted out if planned large neutrino detectors get the go ahead.

Don't know if GP is still here to read this (or he became a victim of Bradmins' game) but neutrino detectors in Japan and Italy(Kamioka Liquid-Scintillator Antineutrino Detector and the Borexino) have confirmed, according to a recent article, that indeed there is fission going on.

More than half of 44 TW is from radioactive decay (+ fission in the core, confirmed by geoneutrino's). And yes about 4TW from decaying K40. Remember those bananas!

Expect a few news headlines regarding this in coming days.

.
>>>>
Link:http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop ... tureGeosci

[harbans]

India may soon export Nuclear Reactors

WASHINGTON: India could soon join a select group of countries like US, China and France which export nuclear reactors, a Congressional report has said.

....

According to World Nuclear Association, India is offering its indigenous 220 and 540 megawatt heavy water reactor designs for export, although no specific customers have been identified.

The CRS report said only a limited number of countries conduct commercial enrichment and reprocessing of fissile materials and can supply this technology.

At present, supplier states are not planning any transfers of enrichment or reprocessing technology. The Nuclear Suppliers Group recently added criteria to its guidelines for the supply of fuel cycle technologies.

"Commercial reprocessing is now being done in France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, and India."

[Gerard]

upcoming uranium mine in Andhra Pradesh's Tumalapalli

This will deprive people of their land, cause their babies to be born without heads and give their grandmother cancer. There will be no mine in Tumalapalli. The entire site will gheroed by progressive activists interested in the welfare of the oppressed. Not a gram of yellowcake will be produced from this.

[Theo_Fidel]

Before anyone jumps, Gerard forgot the smilie. Bad Gerard.

[ramana]

I said many times the object of the deal is to codicil the NPT and get out of the sanctions regime. All else is time pass.

[Sanku]

In ALL phases all human activities consume more energy than they produce. This is law of conservation of energy coupled with engineering efficiency of form of energy transformation.

You probably want to say something else.

No. I was spot on. Burning a kerosene lamp as an experiment with a match would produce more energy than what was consumed in making the match itself or my act of setting it alight, provided there's enough kerosene in the lamp to tilt the odds in my favour. There is no need to go back to the time of the dinosaurs that died to provide biomass that decayed into the crude oil which gave the kerosene.

[amit]

(remember all those discussion about radioactivity in a banana!)

Amber go easy on the banana. A lot of people in these parts are allergic to it. Too much logic for them to handle!

[amit]

I said many times the object of the deal is to codicil the NPT and get out of the sanctions regime. All else is time pass.

Ramana,

Well said.

[gakakkad]

@ Amber would you be having full text of the nature article?
From my hospital I can only access Nature Medicine and Nature genetics.

[Theo_Fidel]

Except the NPT has not been amended. And the sanctions regime has not been lifted.

Note pipsqueak Australia unilaterally issuing sanctions against India using the NPT as cover. Or the USA issuing the Hyde clause which is a pretty India specific sanction. God forbid any Indian Institute should by mistake obtain any dual use reprocessing technology....

What kind of deal is this again. Some victory this....

[Sanku]

Except the NPT has not been amended. And the sanctions regime has not been lifted.

There was no chance that it ever would, to some obvious is obvious early, other, deliberately or otherwise take months and years to get to what is clear early on.

[amit]

^^^^^

Same old stuff that has been discussed to death and dissed recycled yet again. Sigh!

[Sanku]

^^^^^

Same old stuff that has been discussed to death and dissed recycled yet again. Sigh!

People expecting that severity of a crime will become less because time has passed and people have forgotten are in for a nasty surprise.

SC has reopened the cash for votes episode which was the lynch pin of purchasing the parliament to push the deal through.

The story is just beginning, this will be the centerpiece of history when these years are talked about.

[amit]

^^^^^^^



I like the righteous anger. Recently it seemed to be missing. Adds spice to the entertainment.

But please do carry on.

[somnath]

There are repeated allusions to non-amendment of NPT...Was that ever a goal? Do people even know what NPT is about? Signing up to NPT, even as a nuclear weapons power, would mean giving up the right to test for ever!

It would obvioulsy be a waste of time to ask for any evidence that anyone promised "NPT amendment" as a byproduct of the nuke deal..

[amit]

There are repeated allusions to non-amendment of NPT...Was that ever a goal? Do people even know what NPT is about? Signing up to NPT, even as a nuclear weapons power, would mean giving up the right to test for ever!

It would obvioulsy be a waste of time to ask for any evidence that anyone promised "NPT amendment" as a byproduct of the nuke deal..

Somnath, boss let it go. Round and round the mulberry tree...

How many times have we gone through this same arguments and counter arguments. In your old age read the history that Sanku ji is talking about! It is only then that you will attain Moksha from all things nuclear.

[Amber G.]

@ Amber would you be having full text of the nature article?
From my hospital I can only access Nature Medicine and Nature genetics.

Full text given in the link, I realize now, needs subscription or association with an institution.. I thought most schools have it. If you still need the whole text let me know..

OTOH many papers have the story... Google gives ...Scientific American Blog, or Physics World (http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46592 or
New Scientist even
From Daily India: (Excerpts below)
What keeps the Earth cooking? 44 trillion watts of continuous heat!

London, July 18: We all know that the Earth runs on massive amounts of heat - enough to melt iron in the outer core, create magnetic field, spread the sea floors and move the continents. However, where all this heat comes from was a mystery until now....
...
According to a new research, ...half of our planet's internal heat stems from natural radioactivity...

Geologists have used temperature measurements from more than 20,000 boreholes around the world to estimate that some 44 terawatts (44 trillion watts) of heat is constantly flowing out of the Earth's interior into space. But, where does it come from?

Geologists relied on temperature measurements from more than 20,000 boreholes around the world.

Radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium in Earth's crust and mantle is a principal source, and in 2005 scientists in the KamLAND collaboration, based in Japan, first showed that there was a way to measure the contribution directly.

Using the Kamioka Liquid-scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND) located under a mountain in Japan, they analyzed geoneutrinos -emitted by decaying radioactive materials within the Earth.

<snip>

KamLAND scientists have now published new figures for heat energy from radioactive decay. Based on the improved sensitivity of the KamLAND detector, plus several years' worth of additional data, the new estimate is not merely "consistent" with the predictions of accepted geophysical models but is precise enough to aid in refining those models.

Antineutrinos are produced not only in the decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium isotopes but in a variety of others, including fission products in nuclear power reactors. In fact, reactor-produced antineutrinos were the first neutrinos to be directly detected (neutrinos and antineutrinos are distinguished from each other by the interactions in which they appear).

All models of the inner Earth depend on indirect evidence. Leading models of the kind known as bulk silicate Earth (BSE) assume that the mantle and crust contain only lithophiles ("rock-loving" elements) {We talked about this wrt to question why U/Th is more in the crust etc} and the core contains only siderophiles (elements that "like to be with iron"). Thus all the heat from radioactive decay comes from the crust and mantle - about eight terawatts from uranium 238 (238U), another eight terawatts from thorium 232 (232Th), and four terawatts from potassium 40 (40K).{K40 is primary reason why banana - or human body - is radioactive ...though C14 also contributes to human radioactivity}

Additional factors that have to be taken into account include how the radioactive elements are distributed (whether uniformly or concentrated in a "sunken layer" at the core-mantle boundary).....
...

The study is detailed in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Hth

[gakakkad]

@ Amber thanks . These will do. Will get the full text from university library . From the hospital only the medical related journals are accessible.

[Amber G.]

upcoming uranium mine in Andhra Pradesh's Tumalapalli

.

Hello Gerard. Nice to see you still post here once in a while. I have a question, and thanks in advance, if you (or Somnath or GP et al) can point to a source, or give your perspective. (I know you have put some post(s) here a few months ago about PBR)

What is the status of any research into pebble bed reactors ( HTGR or other VHTR) in India?
(Recently this came into a conversation I was having with a physicist and came to know that China is very serious about this and has invested a lot - also that India does have some knowledge/technology wrt manufacturing TRISO and pebbles)

For those who are unfamiliar with pebble bed reactors.. any good source, such as this one from MIT http://web.mit.edu/pebble-bed/.. is a good starting point.

From physics point of view as far as Fission reactors go -

- There is virtually no chance of re-activity type ((Chernoyble) of accidents.. (reaction will stop if moderator is not there)
- There is virtually no chance of Fukushima (loss of Coolant) type accidents.. (Even if all the power and coolant is gone .. reactor will still be okay - No meltdown )
- High efficiency (about twice of normal BWR etc..)
- Radioactive discharge in environment - many magnitude lower than BWR (100x lower)
- Very suitable for Th as a fuel
- No need to shutdown while changing fuel etc..


(Germany was the first one to use but they stopped and discarded the technology after an accident.. more for political /PR reason than technical reason (IMO). Actually some one I respect a lot, and who knows a lot about such things, told me that that decision by Germany was very silly... BTW China's efforts, I am told, are based on German design.)

[Jarita]

I remember bringing this up sometime back when Somnath had mocked me and said that it was not true and India barely had any uranium.
I had also mentioned how Dow has a partnership to extract this Uranium (yes, same Union Carbide Dow) (yes and Somnath types had done the same - guess people will believe only after all our reserves are gone). This was through a blatant sell-out by the YSR government which gave them the deal. Which is also why a lot of top US leaders made hyderabad destination of choice - Uranium, oil, minerals. Additionally, this is also why the region is hot target of EJ activity.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14196372

India: 'Massive' uranium find in Andhra Pradesh
Uranium mine at Tummalapale Exploration work is underway in Tummalapalle
Continue reading the main story
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Surrender by 'uranium theft' man
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India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh may have one of the largest reserves of uranium in the world, the country's chief nuclear officer says.

Studies show Tummalapalle in Kadapa district could have reserves of 150,000 tonnes of the mineral, Atomic Energy Commission chief S Banerjee said.

India has estimated reserves of about 175,000 tonnes of uranium.

Analysts say the new reserves would still not be sufficient to meet India's growing nuclear energy needs.

Mr Banerjee said that studies at Tummalapalle have shown that the area "had a confirmed reserve of 49,000 tonnes and recent surveys indicate that this figure could go up even threefold" and become one of the world's largest uranium reserves.

The uranium deposits in the area appeared to be spread over 35km (21 miles), he said, adding that exploration work was going on in the area.

Mr Banerjee said the new findings were a "major development", but India's own uranium reserves would still fall short of meeting its nuclear energy needs.

"The new findings would only augment the indigenous supply of uranium. There would still be a significant gap. We would still have to import," he was quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper.

India is planning to set up some 30 reactors over as many years and get a quarter of its electricity from nuclear energy by 2050.





Please read


http://www.scribd.com/doc/48832278/E-Jo ... 15-2011-10

http://www.scribd.com/doc/48832406/E-Jo ... 15-2011-11