India has announced plans for a prototype nuclear power plant that uses an innovative "safer" fuel.
Officials are currently selecting a site for the reactor, which would be the first of its kind, using thorium for the bulk of its fuel instead of uranium – the fuel for conventional reactors. They plan to have the plant up and running by the end of the decade.
The development of workable and large-scale thorium reactors has for decades been a dream for nuclear engineers, while for environmentalists it has become a major hope as an alternative to fossil fuels. Proponents say the fuel has considerable advantages over uranium. Thorium is more abundant and exploiting it does not involve release of large quantities of carbon dioxide, making it less dangerous for the climate than fossil fuels like coal and oil.
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The fast breeding technology us interesting from scientific point of view, but there are almost zero possibilities to see it in power production.
In my point of view the biggest challenge is around the coolant: fast breeder reactors use molten metal (Li or Na) which in contact with air are going to violently burn or in contact with water to explode. They are highly corrosive putting some threats on current vessel technologies.
By the way, in Italy there is the only re-processing plant for the U-Th cycle (dated 1960...), as far as I know.
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