{"id":342452,"date":"2025-07-08T17:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T11:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=342452"},"modified":"2025-07-08T22:14:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T16:44:54","slug":"pressurised-heavy-water-reactor-phwr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/pressurised-heavy-water-reactor-phwr\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News: <\/strong>The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has approved the operational license for Units 3 and 4 of the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in Gujarat.<\/p>\n<h2>About Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) forms the foundation of the <strong>first stage<\/strong> of India\u2019s <strong>Three-Stage Nuclear Power Programme<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It operates using <strong>natural uranium<\/strong> as fuel, which contains approximately <strong>99.28% uranium-238<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>During the fission process, the reactor generates <strong>plutonium-239<\/strong> as a by-product.<\/li>\n<li>This <strong>plutonium-239<\/strong> is later used to create <strong>Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel<\/strong>, a combination of uranium and plutonium, which will serve as fuel for <strong>Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs)<\/strong> in the <strong>second stage<\/strong> of the programme.<\/li>\n<li>The PHWR uses <strong>heavy water (D\u2082O)<\/strong> as both the <strong>coolant<\/strong> and <strong>neutron moderator<\/strong>, allowing the reactor to sustain a chain reaction even with natural uranium.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advantages<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>They use <strong>thin-walled pressure tubes<\/strong> instead of a large pressure vessel, which is typically used in other reactor types such as Pressurised Water Reactors (PWRs).<\/li>\n<li>This design reduces the potential severity of accidents in case of a rupture, making the reactor inherently <strong>safer and easier to manage<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>About Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB)<\/strong> is a <strong>regulatory authority<\/strong> in India.<\/li>\n<li>It was <strong>established in November 1983<\/strong> under the provisions of the <strong>Atomic Energy Act, 1962<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>AERB is responsible for <strong>ensuring the safety of nuclear and radiation facilities and activities<\/strong> across the country.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Objective:<\/strong> Its primary objective is to <strong>protect human health and the environment<\/strong> from potential risks associated with <strong>ionizing radiation and nuclear energy.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The Board functions as the <strong>regulatory body for nuclear safety<\/strong>, setting standards, granting licenses, and enforcing compliance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has approved the operational license for Units 3 and 4 of the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in Gujarat. About Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) The Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) forms the foundation of the first stage of India\u2019s Three-Stage Nuclear Power Programme. It operates using natural&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/pressurised-heavy-water-reactor-phwr\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR)\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738,12039],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-342452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}