BARC plans to hand over safety review of reactor to energy board

The country's strategic lab, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is working out modalities to hand over its first major public domain project and design of of the newly developed 300 mw advanced heavy water reactor (AHWR) for safety regulation to the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).

Atomic energy commission chairman Anil Kakodkar said the safety regulatory power transfer of AHWR from BARC is necessary as it is a power reactor falling under the public domain.

The transfer of power of safety review of AHWR will be done for the first time since the issuance of the formal gazette notification by the president of India in May, 2000, under which the safety regulation of BARC and its facilities were transferred from AERB to BARC Safety Council constituted by its director following Pokhran II nuke tests, he added.

Kakodkar said "this is the first major public domain project of BARC which has to be handed over to AERB from the strategic lab and this involves certain special issues."

"Being a new type of nuclear power reactor, we want AHWR to undergo regulatory procedures through AERB and we are working on modalities to clear procedural issues involved", he added.

AHWR had already undergone safety review by BARC committee and a peer review by nuclear power corporation of india. Based on which the reactor design underwent modifications to improve performance as well as reduced its cost, R K Sinha, director, reactor design and development group, BARC said.

Unlike existing pressurised heavy water reactors, AHWR has a new proliferation-resistant design that can be shut down from full power (by steam pressure itself) and kept cool for a long time, Sinha said.

Chairman, AERB, S P Sukhatme said a formal request for review of ahwr is yet to come to AERB from BARC.