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by FP Staff Sep 3, 2012
Thorium, if India’s nuclear scientific community is to be believed, holds the key to our nuclear programme being freed from the dependance on uranium imports to power our nuclear plants and allowing us to develop limitless amounts of fuel since it could be extracted from sand on beaches.
Representational image. AP
But according to a report in the Statesman, the government has failed to control the export of monazite, the raw material from which thorium can be extracted, and has allowed 2.1 million tonnes of it to be extracted.
The report estimates that if the thorium extracted from the monazite is estimated at $100 per tonne, then the loss to the exchequer is approximately Rs 48 lakh crore, in addition to the incalculable loss to the nuclear fuel programme.
So what is monazite? Sand, rather sand from particular beaches in states like Kerala, Orissa and Tamil Nadu which yields about 8 to 10 percent thorium, according to the BARC.
Thorium is converted into an isotope of uranium which is used to feed nuclear reactors and can be used multiple times to generate electrcity, creating a seemingly endless cycle of fuel availability.
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has developed a research nuclear reactor that is powered by thorium at Kalpakkam near Chennai and work has also begun on a 500 MW fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam.
According to another report in the Statesman, the US and Japan are actively looking to increase their production of thorium and thorium-based reactors, due to which India needs to safeguard its mineral resources by banning the export of minerals from which thorium can be extracted, in order to safeguard its nuclear fuel programme for the future.
So is there an immediate cause for worry? Maybe not.
As recently as July, the Atomic Energy Chairman RK Sinha was quoted as saying that it would take some time for thorium to replace uranium as the fuel of choice in all nuclear power plants, specifically a couple of decades.
“We have to assess the thorium-powered reactor on various aspects in the long-term before replicating similar models in bigger ways,” he was quoted as saying in a report in the Times of India.
However, if it is as crucial for the Indian nuclear power programme, the Indian government might do well to guard its exports more carefully.
Monday, September 3rd, 2012 | Posted by News Desk
What Exactly is this Thorium Scam?
A mammoth Thorium scam, which has swindled the national exchequer of Rs 48 Lakh Crore is supposed to have been unearthed by RTI activists and the Statesman Newspaper. Sources state that the missing thorium, estimated at $100 a tonne will make all other scams the UPA has embroiled itself in, seem very dwarf-like. It has been stated that 2.1 million tones of monazite, which is equivalent to 195,300 tonnes of thorium at 9.3% recovery, has disappeared from Indian shores after 2004, the year Manmohan Singh became India’s Prime Minister.
On 30 November, 2011, an RTI activist, Kodikunnel Suresh sought the Prime Minister’s response regarding the export of monazite, whether companies of mining beach sand have violated the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board rules. To this, V Narayanaswamy, Minister of State, PMO, said that beach sands with heavy minerals were exported. But monazite was excluded from this.
Narayanaswamy stated that licence under the Atomic Energy Act was necessary for monazite and thorium export. However, being prescribed substances, no licence was given for its export. The Prime Minister, who heads the Department of Atomic Energy, delisted these heavy minerals from the prescribed substances list vide SO 61 (E) dated 20 January, 2006. This was done to facilitate their export by private companies, with licences being granted with the proviso that “having undertaken to comply with the conditions prescribed in the Atomic Energy (Working of mines, minerals hand handling of prescribed substances) Rules, 1984, licence is issued with the approval of the Licensing Authority.”
Reports state that radioactive minerals, vital for nuclear energy programme, are taken out of the country without any restriction, inspite of the Indian Rare Earths being the only organization being authorized to extract thorium from monazite sands. To add to this, private exporters of prohibited minerals are also presented with Special Awards and Certificates of Merit by Chemicals and Allied Products Export Promotion Council of the Government of India.
As stated before, Indian Rare Earths Limited is the only authorized body that can extract Thorium because indiscriminate and non-monitored mining can cause severe erosion in coastal areas. The Chief Controller of Mines, which comes under Union Ministry of Mines is the Licencing Authority. However, following the retirement of CP Ambrose, Chief Controller of Mines, on 30 June 2008, the post is being kept open deliberately. It is also stated by sources that Ranjan Sahai, Controller of Mines of the Central Zone, is now allowed to officiate in place of the Chief Controller. He is alleged to be close to mineral industrialists of the private placer.