India’s efforts to develop a closed nuclear fuel cycle could eventually help it harness its abundant thorium resources while reducing the volume of radioactive waste requiring long-term management, particle physicist Naba Kumar Mondal said.
Delivering a talk on “From Uranium to Thorium: India’s Path to Energy Security” at GITAM Deemed to be University on Tuesday, Mr. Mondal, a NASI senior scientist at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, explained the importance of reprocessing and recycling spent nuclear fuel.
He said India’s three-stage nuclear programme envisaged the use of uranium in the first stage, plutonium-based fast breeder reactors in the second and thorium-based uranium-233 (U-233) fuel in the third.
The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) attaining criticality marked an important step towards the second stage, he said. Fast breeder reactors are designed to produce additional fissile material and provide a pathway for converting thorium into U-233.
Mr. Mondal also spoke about advanced reactor concepts, including molten salt reactors, and their potential applications in the thorium-U-233 fuel cycle. High-temperature reactors could also support low-carbon hydrogen production, he said.
GITAM University Centre for Interdisciplinary Research Distinguished Professor G. Ravi Kumar, GITAM School of Science Director C. Kavitha and others participated.
Published - September 08, 2026 08:01 pm IST