'India can be world champ in fast breeder tech'

Praising India for moving towards fast-breeder technology, the father of the French fast breeder reactor programme Dr Georges Vendryes Tueday sounded a note of caution, saying the way forward was now fraught with risks.

Speaking at the commemorative function held here to mark the successful completion of 20 years of Fast Breeder Test Reactor, Vendryes said "I recommend you move forward with utmost circumspection, take all kinds of advice and precautions and take no risks."

"This kind of 'Hanuman-jump' you are doing in moving straight from Fast Breeder Test Reactor to Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor is a bold one," he said.

He advised India not to try to 'beat the Olympic Record'.

"If all goes well, you will be acclaimed within a decade or so as world champion in FBTR," he said.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the country would commission the indigenously developed 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor by 2010.

The production of nuclear power from PFBR would mark the beginning of an era of fast reactors in the country, which would propel India to a world leadership position in this area in the near future, he said.

Mukherjee said the reprocessing technology of fast reactor fuel is complex and demanding, so much so that it has been mastered by only a few countries in the world.

"India's success in this crucial pursuit gives us confidence that we will be able to extract plutonium and uranium from the irradiated fuel coming out of PFBR. This technology will enable us to leverage our limited indigenous uranium resources manifold," he said.

The current indigenous uranium resources are capable of generating 10,000 MW in Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors, he said. Plutonium, extracted by reprocessing irradiated PHWR fuel, would in turn be able to generate more than five lakh MW through fast breeders and associated, closed fuel cycles, he added. "The planned contribution of FBR is 2.5 GW (Gigawatt or about 2,500 MW) by 2020 and more than 200 GW (200,000 MW) by 2050," he said.