The Indian Pressurized Water Reactor-900 (IPWR-900) is a class of

pressurized water reactors A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary coolant (water) is ...

being designed by

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's premier nuclear research facility, headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Homi Jehangir Bhabha as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) in January 195 ...

(BARC) in partnership with

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is an Indian public sector undertaking based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is wholly owned by the Government of India and is responsible for the generation of electricity from nuclear power. N ...

to supplement the Indian three-stage nuclear power programme

History

BARC has developed a 83 MW compact

light water reactor The light-water reactor (LWR) is a type of thermal-neutron reactor that uses normal water, as opposed to heavy water, as both its coolant and neutron moderator; furthermore a solid form of fissile elements is used as fuel. Thermal-neutron reacto ...

known as CLWR-B1 for the Indian Navy's

Arihant-class submarine The ''Arihant''-class ( in Sanskrit) is a class of Indian nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines being built for the Indian Navy. They were developed under the ''Advanced Technology Vessel'' (ATV) project to design and build nuclear-pow ...

program which includes a prototype reactor operating at

Kalpakkam Kalpakkam is a township in Tamil Nadu, India, situated on the Coromandel Coast 70 kilometres south of Chennai. A conglomerate of two villages (Puduppattinam and Sadurangappatinam) and a DAE township, it is about from Thiruvanmiyur and fro ...

since 2002 and was made operational in the

INS Arihant INS ''Arihant'' (SSBN 80) (Sanskrit: ''Vanquisher of Enemies''), designated S2 Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarine, is the lead ship of India's of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. The 6,000 tonne vessel was built under the Advance ...

in 2013. The experience gained in the naval reactor program is being used to develop a commercial electricity generation reactor of 900 MWe capacity. To support the industrial capacity to fabricate the large forgings for a

reactor pressure vessel A reactor pressure vessel (RPV) in a nuclear power plant is the pressure vessel containing the nuclear reactor coolant, core shroud, and the reactor core. Classification of nuclear power reactors Russian Soviet era RBMK reactors have each fuel a ...

, a heavy forge unit has been set up as a joint venture by the

and Indian engineering conglomerate

Larsen & Toubro Larsen & Toubro Ltd, commonly known as L&T, is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, with business interests in engineering, construction, manufacturing, technology, information technology and financial services, headquartered in Mumba ...

's subsidiary L&T Special Steels and Heavy Forgings Limited in

Hazira Hazira is a suburb and a transshipment port in the Surat City in the Gujarat state of India. It is the west most end of Surat. Hazira is one of the major ports of India and the most important element of Surat Metropolitan Region. The town is ...

, Gujarat. The joint venture has set up a 9000 ton forging press and plans to increase it to 17,000 tons. BARC reported the completion of manufacture of test forgings in August 2021 and confirmed the technological know-how and capability to manufacture forgings of thicknesses 350 mm to 750 mm essential to manufacturing of reactor pressure vessels for pressurized water reactor program. Indian nuclear activities regulator

Atomic Energy Regulatory Board The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) was constituted on 15 November 1983 by the President of India by exercising the powers conferred by Section 27 of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 (33 of 1962) to carry out certain regulatory and safety func ...

carried out the Pre-Consenting design review for the design in the fiscal year 2015-16.

Design

The IPWR design is planned to retain commonality of majority of non- nuclear island components of the design with the IPHWR-700

pressurized heavy-water reactor A pressurized heavy-water reactor (PHWR) is a nuclear reactor that uses heavy water ( deuterium oxide D2O) as its coolant and neutron moderator. PHWRs frequently use natural uranium as fuel, but sometimes also use very low enriched uranium. The ...

s currently in use to limit design timelines and construction costs. The

steam generator A Steam generator is a device used to boil water to create steam. More specifically, it may refer to: *Boiler (steam generator), a closed vessel in which water is heated under pressure *Monotube steam generator *Supercritical steam generator or Ben ...

design and configuration will also be adopted from the IPHWR-700 design. The IPWR core consists 151 fuel assemblies arranged in a hexagonal pitch with 331 lattice locations wherein 311 locations are occupied by fuel pins, 18 by control guide tubes and 1 by instrumentation tube and the remaining location at centre is occupied by central water rod. The fuel pins have an outer diameter 9.4 mm with a wall thickness of 0.7 mm. The core contains 103 rod cluster assemblies with each cluster containingf 18 rods which have B₄C and Dy₂O₃· TiO₂ as the

control Control may refer to: Basic meanings Economics and business * Control (management), an element of management * Control, an element of management accounting * Comptroller (or controller), a senior financial officer in an organization * Controllin ...

material. The control rods have been designed to provide negative reactivity coefficients with a shutdown margin of 10 mk at hot zero power state for a prolonged time. IPWR utilises

Gadolinium Gadolinium is a chemical element with the symbol Gd and atomic number 64. Gadolinium is a silvery-white metal when oxidation is removed. It is only slightly malleable and is a ductile rare-earth element. Gadolinium reacts with atmospheric oxygen ...

(Gd) compound Gd₂O₃(Gadolinia) as a

neutron absorber In applications such as nuclear reactors, a neutron poison (also called a neutron absorber or a nuclear poison) is a substance with a large neutron absorption cross-section. In such applications, absorbing neutrons is normally an undesirable eff ...

for suppression of initial reactivity which is a prominent feature of modern PWR designs including EPR and

AP1000 The AP1000 is a nuclear power plant designed and sold by Westinghouse Electric Company. The plant is a pressurized water reactor with improved use of passive nuclear safety and many design features intended to lower its capital cost and improve ...

. The use of Gd reduces concentration of dissolved boron required at the beginning of the fuel cycle and helps keep the coolant temperature coefcient of reactivity sufficiently negative in all operating conditions. The reactor will utilise a

made of 20MnMoNi55 steel also known as “APURVA” (Advanced Purified Reactor Vessel Alloy). BARC disclosed in January 2020 that a

Core catcher A core catcher is a device provided to catch the molten core material ( corium) of a nuclear reactor in case of a nuclear meltdown and prevent it from escaping the containment building. A core catcher is made from a special concrete ceramic to pr ...

design has been validated that can manage a 100% core melt accident. The design will include Generation III+ safety features like Passive Decay Heat Removal System, Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS), Corium Retention and Core Catcher System.

Reactor fleet

Government of India or

NPCIL The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is an Indian public sector undertaking based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is wholly owned by the Government of India and is responsible for the generation of electricity from nuclear power. ...

have not disclosed any locations or timeline for the construction of the first IPWR-900 reactor.

Technical specifications

References

{{Nuclear fission reactors Nuclear power reactor types

History

Design

Reactor fleet

Technical specifications

See also

References