Context: Recently, NTPC Limited signed a strategic pact with US-based Clean Core Thorium Energy (CCTE) to explore development and deployment of ANEEL (Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life).

• The move aligns with NTPC's efforts to venture into nuclear energy and use it as a clean, dispatchable, and baseload source of energy to support this endeavour.

• NTPC, a Maharatna company under Government of India, is India’s largest power generator.

About ANEEL

• Developed by CCTE, ANEEL is a Thorium based fuel for Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs).

• Note: CCTE is a leading developer of thorium-based nuclear fuel technologies, committed to pioneering research of advanced nuclear fuel cycles.

• CCTE’s flagship Aneel fuel combines thorium with small amounts of enriched uranium.

• The expected benefits of Aneel fuel include the utilisation of thorium as a fuel in existing PHWR reactors, significant reduction in nuclear waste, enhancing India’s energy security using domestically-available thorium, and improved safety and proliferation resistance.

• It added that Aneel fuel offers cost savings by delivering greater energy output within existing safety margins and lowering the operating costs of current reactors.

Expected Benefits of ANEEL Fuel:

• Utilization of thorium as a fuel in existing PHWR reactors, enhancing India’s energy security using domestically available thorium. 

• Waste Reduction: Through high burnup fuel performance, it reduces nuclear waste generation by over 85%.

• Cost Savings: Fewer fuel replacements reduce operational expenses.

• Non-Proliferation: Spent fuel is non-weaponizable due to thorium content.

About Thorium

• Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive metal. 

• Thorium exists in nature in a single isotopic form – Th-232 – which decays very slowly.

• Most common source of thorium is Monazite, whose richest concentrations are found in placer deposits. 

• India has the largest thorium reserves in the world (11.93 million tonnes of Monazite, containing 1.07 million tonnes of thorium). 

• Thorium (Th-232) is not itself fissile and so is not directly usable in a thermal neutron reactor.

• It requires a fissile material such as Uranium-233 or Plutonium-239 as a driver for chain reaction.