THE CIRUS REACTOR WAS SHUT DOWN PERMANENTLY ON FRIDAY MIDNIGHT i.e. ON 31st DEC 2010.
THIS 40 MW REACTOR, OPERATING AT A CAPACITY FACTOR OF 50-80% WAS PRODUCING 6.5-10.5 Kg OF PLUTONIUM PER YEAR AND USED NATURAL URANIUM FUEL WHILE USING HEAVY-WATER(DEUTERIUM) AS A MODERATOR (a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons and turning them into thermal neutrons which are capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction) PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE FIRST NUCLEAR TEST IN POKHRAN-I (codenamed SMILING BUDDHA) IN 1974.
THE FIRST NUCLEAR CHAIN REACTION (CRITICALITY) WAS ATTAINED ON 10th JULY 1960.
THE CIRUS (CANADA INDIA REACTOR UTILITY SERVICES) WAS AN ICONIC SYMBOL OF INDIA’S INDIGENOUS NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMME FOR CIVIL AND MILITARY. THE PLUTONIUM FROM ITS SPENT FUEL WAS USED AS A PART OF STRATEGIC NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMME OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ATOMIC ENERGY. THE BARC (BHABHA ATOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE) MAINTAINS THAT URANIUM FUEL WHICH IT PROCURED INDEGENOUSLY HAS BEEN FULLY UTILISED BY SLOWLY DRAINING OUT OF HEAVY WATER IN THE MODERATOR. HOWEVER, THE PUMPS STILL CONTINUE TO RUN TO REMOVE THE DECAY HEAT AND ALL OTHER PROCESSES TO REMOVE THE RESIDUAL HEAT FROM THE CORE FO THE REACTOR WILL BE KEPT OPERATIONAL FOR SOME MORE TIME, PROBABLY UPTO ONE YEAR. AFTER DECONTAMINATION, THE REACTOR WILL NOT BE DEOMMISSIONED AND WILL BE USED FOR STUDENTS’ TRAINING. ALSO A PLAN TO CONVERT IT INTO A NEUTRON PRODUCING SYSTEM FOR SUB-CRITICAL EXPERIMENTS IS ON THE ANVIL. THIS FIFTY YEAR OLD NUCLEAR REACTOR, COULD HAVE LIVED FOR TWENTY MORE YEARS, WAS SHUT DOWN IN SEPTEMBER 1997, REFURBISHED, AND RESUMED IN 2005(SCHEDULED TO RESUME IN 2003), BEFORE PERMANENTLY SHUTTING IT DOWN.
Milind Phadke
+919890317557
