The Hindu Business Line : Cirus reactor to be put into ‘maximum use’ prior its end

MUMBAI: Cirus, the research reactor that will be shut down in 2010 as per the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement, will be put to “maximum use'' by testing thorium and enriched uranium fuel, a top official at BARC said on Tuesday.

The reactor, located inside India's strategic lab Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), will have to be shut down next year under the Separation Plan of the Indo-US deal and “we are making maximum use of the reactor,'' director, BARC, Dr S Banerjee told PTI on the sidelines of the four-day international conference on 'Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in Quantum Physics', which began here today.

“Systematic studies are being conducted on Thorium fuel for advanced heavy water reactor. Thorium burning in the blankets of some of the existing pressurised heavy water reactors are also being studied,'' Banerjeee said.

“Since our post-irradiation facility is ready, testing of fuels in Cirus is very important,'' he said. Cirus, a Canadian reactor of 40 MW (maximum) commissioned in 1960 was using natural uranium and heavy water from the US. It was one of the main react or producing plutonium stockpile for Pokhran nuke test of 1974.

The reactor, which is dedicated to isotope production and neutron beam research and R&D in reactor technology, is not under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. It was shut down in 1997 for refurbishing and was back in operation in 2005.

The cost of refurbishing was around Rs five crore. Asked whether it will be decommissioned in 2010, Banerjee said, “we will simply shut it down.'' – PTI

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