Thorium and Air India Flight 101

Based on facts

 

Prologue

An interesting read - all episodes can be read individually or continuously.

All events described in this document are facts and can be studied in detail in wikipedia or other Internet sources.

 

 

Episode: Thorium

 

 

Thorium
Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. It was discovered in 1828 and named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder.

 

Thorium is estimated to be about three to four times more abundant than uranium in the Earth's crust. Similar to quartz extracted from sand, it is chiefly refined from a type of sand called monazite sand.

 

Reserve estimates

Under the USGS (US Geological Survey) estimate, USA, Australia, and India have particularly large reserves of thorium. Both the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) appear to conclude that India may possess the lion's share of world's thorium deposits.

 

The Government of India's latest estimate, shared in the country's Parliament in August 2011, puts the recoverable reserve at 846,477 tones.

 

When compared to uranium, there is a growing interest in developing a thorium fuel cycle due to its greater safety benefits, absence of non-fertile isotopes, and its higher occurrence and availability. India's three stage nuclear power programme is possibly the most well known and well funded of such efforts.

 

Research and development of thorium-based nuclear reactors, primarily the Liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR), has been or is now being done in India, China, Norway, U.S., Israel and Russia.

 

Nuclear Fuel

India has the capability to use thorium cycle based processes to extract nuclear fuel. This is of special significance to the Indian nuclear power generation strategy as India has one of the world's largest reserves of thorium, which could provide power for more than 10,000 years , and perhaps as long as 60,000 years.

 

 

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Episode: Air India Flight 101

 

 

The FlightThe Boeing 707-437 VT-DMN had first flown on 5 April 1961 and was delivered new to Air India on 25 May 1961. It had flown a total of 16,188 hours.

 

 

The Morning of 24 January 1966Designated as Air India Flight 101, it was a scheduled passenger flight from Mumbai to London, operated by a Boeing 707, registration VT-DMN and named Kanchenjunga. After leaving Bombay, it had made two scheduled stops at Delhi and Beirut and was en route to another stop at Geneva. At Flight Level 190, the crew was instructed to descend for Geneva International Airport after the aircraft had passed Mont Blanc (the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe, and the European Union. It rises 4,810.45 m (15,782 ft) above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence.).

 

The pilot, thinking that he had passed Mont Blanc, started to descend and flew into the Mont Blanc range in France near the Rochers de la Tournette, at an elevation of 4,750 metres (15,584 ft). All 106 passengers and 11 crew were killed.

 

VHF omnidirectional radio range (VOR) - It is a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft to determine their position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network of fixed ground radio beacons, with a receiver unit.

At the time, aircrew fixed the position of their aircraft as being above Mont Blanc by taking a cross-bearing from one VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) as they flew along a track from another VOR. However, the accident aircraft departed Beirut with one of its VOR receivers unserviceable.

 

The investigation concluded:

a) The pilot-in-command, who knew on leaving Beirut that one of the VORs was unserviceable, miscalculated his position in relation to Mont Blanc and reported his own estimate of this position to the controller; the radar controller noted the error, determined the position of the aircraft correctly and passed a communication to the aircraft which, he believed, would enable it to correct its position.

b) For want of a sufficiently precise phraseology, the correction was mis-understood by the pilot who, under the mistaken impression that he had passed the ridge leading to the summit and was still at a flight level which afforded sufficient safety clearance over the top of Mont Blanc, continued his descent.

 

Wreckage of the crashed Boeing still remains at the crash site. In 2008, a climber found some Indian newspapers dated 23 January 1966; an engine from the Air India Flight 245 crash aircraft was also found.

 

On 21 August 2012  a 9 kg jute bag of diplomatic mail, stamped "On Indian Government Service, Diplomatic Mail, Ministry of External Affairs" was recovered by a mountain rescue worker and turned over to local police. An official with the Indian Embassy in Paris took custody of the mailbag, which was found to be a "Type C" diplomatic pouch meant for newspapers, periodicals and personal letters. The mailbag was found to contain, among other items, still-white and legible copies of The Hindu and The Statesman from mid-January 1966, Air India calendars and a personal letter to the Indian consul-general in New York, C.G. K. Menon. The bag was flown back to New Delhi on a regular Air India flight, in the charge of C. R. Barooah, the flight purser. C.R. Barooah's father, R.C. Barooah, was the flight engineer on Air India Flight 101.

 

 

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Episode: Indian Nuclear Programme

 

 

Homi J. BhabhaHomi Jehangir Bhabha, FRS (30 October 1909 – 24 January 1966) was an Indian nuclear physicist, founding director, and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Colloquially known as "father of Indian nuclear programme", Bhabha was the founding director of two well-known research institutions, namely the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment (now named after him); both sites were the cornerstone of Indian development of nuclear weapons which Bhabha also supervised as its director.

 

 

Career

Starting his scientific career in nuclear physics from Great Britain, Bhabha returned to India for his annual vacation prior to start of theWorld War II in September 1939, prompting Bhabha to remain in India, and accepted a post of reader in physics at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, headed by Nobel laureate C.V. Raman. During this time, Bhabha played a key role in convincing the Congress Party's senior leaders, most notable Jawaharlal Nehru who later served as India's first Premier, to start the ambitious nuclear programme.

 

As part of this vision, Bhabha established the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the institute, began to work on the theory of the movement of point particles, while independently conduct research on nuclear weapons in 1944.

 

In 1945, he established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay, and the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948, serving its first chairman. In 1948, Nehru led the appointment of Bhabha as the director of the nuclear programme and tasked Bhabha to develop the nuclear weapons soon after. In the 1950s, Bhabha represented India in IAEA conferences, and served as President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955. During this time, he intensified his lobbying for developing the nuclear weapons, and soon after the Sino-Indo war, Bhabha aggressively and publicly began to call for the nuclear weapons.

 

 

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

When Bhabha was working at the Indian Institute of Science, there was no institute in India which had the necessary facilities for original work in nuclear physics, cosmic rays, high energy physics, and other frontiers of knowledge in physics. This prompted him to send a proposal in March 1944 to the Sir Dorabji Jamsetji Tata Trust for establishing 'a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics'.

 

The trustees of Sir Dorabji Jamsetji Tata Trust decided to accept Bhabha's proposal and financial responsibility for starting the Institute in April 1944. Bombay was chosen as the location for the prosed Institute as the Government of Bombay showed interest in becoming a joint founder of the proposed institute. The institute, named Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, was inaugurated in 1945  in 540 square meters of hired space in an existing building.

 

In 1948 the Institute was moved into the old buildings of the Royal Yacht club. When Bhabha realized that technology development for the atomic energy programme could no longer be carried out within TIFR he proposed to the government to build a new laboratory entirely devoted to this purpose. For this purpose, 1200 acres of land was acquired at Trombay from the Bombay Government.

 

Thus the Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay (AEET) started functioning in 1954. The same year the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was also established. He represented India in International Atomic Energy Forums, and as President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958.

 

India's three-stage nuclear power programmeBhabha is generally acknowledged as the father of Indian nuclear power. Moreover, he is credited with formulating the country's strategy in the field of nuclear power to focus on extracting power from the country's vast thorium reserves rather than its meager uranium reserves. This thorium focused strategy was in marked contrast to all other countries in the world. The approach proposed by Bhabha to achieve this strategic objective became India's three stage nuclear power programme.

 

Bhabha paraphrased the three stage approach as follows:

“ The total reserves of thorium in India amount to over 500,000 tons in the readily extractable form, while the known reserves of uranium are less than a tenth of this. The aim of long range atomic power programme in India must therefore be to base the nuclear power generation as soon as possible on thorium rather than uranium… The first generation of atomic power stations based on natural uranium can only be used to start off an atomic power programme… The plutonium produced by the first generation power stations can be used in a second generation of power stations designed to produce electric power and convert thorium into U-233, or depleted uranium into more plutonium with breeding gain… The second generation of power stations may be regarded as an intermediate step for the breeder power stations of the third generation all of which would produce more U-233 than they burn in the course of producing power. ”

 

Stage I – Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor

In the first stage of the programme, natural uranium fueled pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR) produce electricity while generating plutonium-239 as by-product. PHWRs was a natural choice for implementing the first stage because it had the most efficient reactor design in terms of uranium utilization, and the existing Indian infrastructure in the 1960s allowed for quick adoption of the PHWR technology.

 

 

Stage II – Fast Breeder Reactor

In the second stage, Fast breeder reactors (FBRs) would use a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel made from plutonium-239, recovered by reprocessing spent fuel from the first stage, and natural uranium. In FBRs, plutonium-239 undergoes fission to produce energy, while the uranium-238 present in the mixed oxide fuel transmutes to additional plutonium-239. Thus, the Stage II FBRs are designed to "breed" more fuel than they consume. Once the inventory of plutonium-239 is built up thorium can be introduced as a blanket material in the reactor and transmuted to uranium-233 for use in the third stage.
The surplus plutonium bred in each fast reactor can be used to set up more such reactors, and thus grow the Indian civil nuclear power capacity till the point where the third stage reactors using thorium as fuel can be brought online.

 

 

Stage III – Thorium based Reactors

A Stage III reactor or an Advanced nuclear power system involves a self-sustaining series of thorium-232-uranium-233 fueled reactors. This would be a thermal breeder reactor, which in principle can be refueled – after its initial fuel charge – using only naturally occurring thorium.

 

KAMINI (Kalpakkam Mini reactor) is a research reactor at Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam, India. Its first criticality was on October 29, 1996. It produces 30 kW of thermal energy at full power. KAMINI is cooled and moderated by light water, and fueled with uranium-233 metal produced by the irradiation of thorium in other reactors.

 

KAMINI was the first reactor in the world designed specifically to use uranium-233 fuel.

 

As a result of Bhabha's vision, "India has the most technically ambitious and innovative nuclear energy program in the world. The extent and functionality of its nuclear experimental facilities are matched only by those in Russia and are far ahead of what is left in the US."

 

 

Death

He was awarded Padma Bhushan by Government of India in 1954. He later served as the member of the Indian Cabinet's Scientific Advisory Committee and provided the pivotal role to Vikram Sarabhai to set up the Indian National Committee for Space Research.

 

After his death, the Atomic Energy Establishment at Trombay was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour. He is one of the most prominent scientists that India has ever had. Bhabha also encouraged research in electronics, space science, radio astronomy and microbiology. The famed radio telescope at Ooty, India was his initiative, and it became a reality in 1970.

 

In January 1966, Bhabha died, while heading to Vienna, Austria to attend a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Scientific Advisory Committee.

 

Among the 106 passengers died in the crash of Air India Flight 101 on 24 January 1966, was the chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha.

 

Many possible theories have been advanced for the air crash, including a conspiracy theory in which Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is involved in order to paralyze India's nuclear program.

 

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Episode: Thorium - revisited

 

The Great Thorium RobberyAccording to recent published 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 extraction of 2.1 million tons of monazite.

 

The report estimates that if the thorium extracted from the monazite is estimated at $100 per ton, then the loss to the exchequer is approximately RS 48 lake crone, in addition to the incalculable loss to the nuclear fuel program.

 

The report comments on UPI's policy on natural resources. It says, “Since the UPA government assumed office in 2004 with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, 2.1 million tones of monazite, equivalent to 195,300 tons of thorium at 9.3 per cent recovery, has disappeared from the shores of India.”

 

‘Thorium disappearing’ should be considered more serious as it is related with India’s Nuclear programme. Thorium is a clean nuclear fuel of strategic importance for both nuclear energy generation and nuclear-tipped missiles. The beaches of Orissa Sand Complex, Manavalakurichi in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and the Aluva-Chavara belt on the Kerala coast have been identified under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, as the main monazite bearing areas in the country.

 

In most other countries, thorium reserves are embedded in rocks which require elaborate processing to extract.

 

Public sector Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) having divisions at Chatrapur in Orissa, Manavalakurichi in Tamil Nadu, Chavara and Aluva, and its own research centre in Kollam in Kerala, is the only institution authorised to extract thorium from monazite sands.

 

Financial Loss

If the Comptroller and Auditor-General were to audit the accounts of the IREL and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), custodians of fissile minerals, the coalgate scam would look like small change. The missing thorium, conservatively estimated at $100 a ton, works out to about Rs 48 lakh crore, putting all other UPA scams in the shade.

 

The beach placer mining sector was opened to private entrepreneurs in 1998. Export of beach sands registered a quantum jump after 2005. As if to promote exports, even radioactive minerals, much needed for our nuclear energy programme, are allowed to be taken out of the country unchecked.

 

To add insult to injury, private exporters of prohibited minerals are presented with Special Awards and Certificates of Merit by the Chemicals and Allied Products Export Promotion Council (CAPEXIL) of the Government of India.

 

Indiscriminate mining, if not monitored and regulated, can cause severe erosion in the coastal areas.

 

Destroying Ramsetu: Easy approach to Thorium rich beaches?

 

It is considered that a large chunk of Thorium would be washed away if Ram Sethu is blasted. And almost all of it would be lost if another tsunami strikes the region. The Sethusamudram Canal, if built destroying RamSethu, will be beneficial to  private parties for easy snatching of beach sand for Thorium available on beaches of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

 

The social organizations which protested against Sethusamudram Project said that since India had rich thorium resources and the technology to use it, the US was pressuring the Centre to speedily implement the Sethusamudram project (through India-US Nuclear Deal).

 

“We suspect an international conspiracy to prevent India from becoming a nuclear power as the thorium deposits will meet the country’s requirement for 400 years,” said a spokesperson of the Vishva Hindu Parishad which criticized destroying of Ramsetu.

 

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