Construction of a thorium fired 300-MWe advanced heavy water reactor (AHWR) will start in “12th plan” period according to Mr. S A Bhardwaj, Technical Director of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, quoted in the Deccan Chronicle yesterday.
The first AHWR reactor – with thorium for fuel — will be used to test new technologies on safety as well as on thorium fuel cycle, Bhardwaj said. It will be India’s first step to embrace thorium as the nuclear fuel of choice. India has thorium in abundance, largely among the monazite sands of its southern states. The United States also possesses large reserves of thorium, but has not felt the same pressure to find alternative to Uranium, which fuels nuclear energy reactors world wide.
The AHWR may be located in Tarapur in Maharashtra or Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu. The reactor was designed by a team of scientists and engineers led by Dr R K Sinha, current chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, who was head of the reactor design group at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
