NEW DELHI, Aug 25: India on Thursday unveiled its design of “a thorium breeder reactor (ATBR)” that can produce 600mw electricity for two years “with no refuelling and practically no control manoeuvres,” news reports said quoting senior officials.

Designed by scientists of Mumbai-based Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), ATBR is claimed to be far more economical and safer than any power reactor in the world.

ATBR does not require natural or enriched uranium which the country is finding difficult to import. It uses thorium — which India has in plenty — and only requires plutonium as “seed” to ignite the reactor core initially.

The reactor is being seen as a probable way before meeting India’s growing energy needs and to foil likely problems from depleting stock of standard nuclear fuel. The ATBR annually requires 2.2 tons of plutonium as “seed.” Although India has facilities to recover plutonium by reprocessing spent fuel, it requires plutonium for its fast breeder reactor programme as well. Nuclear analysts say that it may be possible for India to obtain plutonium from friendly countries wanting to dismantle their weapons or dispose of their stockpiled plutonium.