BARC’s Apsara Research Reactor Upgraded and Recommissioned
India’s oldest research reactor ‘Apsara’ at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay, which was shut-down in 2009, has been upgraded and recommissioned.
BARC upgraded the reactor from 1000 kW to 2000 kW power levels. The reactor, made indigenously, uses plate type dispersion fuel elements made of Low Enriched Uranium (LEU).
The reactor building and associated structures were strengthened to meet the current seismic standards and modernised control and instrumentation has been incorporated to enhance the overall safety of the reactor.
Nearly sixty-two years after Apsara came into existence, a swimming pool type research reactor “Apsara-Upgraded”, of higher capacity was commissioned at Trombay on 10th September 2018 at 18:41 hrs.
“By virtue of higher neutron flux, this reactor will increase indigenous production or radio-isotopes for medical application by about fifty percent and would also be extensively used for research in nuclear physics, material science and radiation shielding,” BARC said in a statement.
“Apsara”, the first research reactor in Asia became operational in Trombay campus of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in August 1956. After providing more than five decades of dedicated service to the researchers, the reactor was shut down in 2009. It was used for several experiments like neutron activation analysis, radiation damage studies, forensic research, neutron radiography and shielding experiments.
Later, on January 20, 1957, the reactor was dedicated to the nation and named by Jawaharlal Nehru when he likened the blue Cerenkov radiation to the beauty of the Apsaras.
The design of Apsara, a pool type reactor, using enriched uranium fuel was conceptualized in 1955 by Dr.Homi Jehangir Bhabha. Dr. Homi J. Bhabha, the father of Indian Nuclear programme had said that research reactors were the back bone of the Indian Nuclear Programme. The reactor, built with indigenous effort, attained first criticality at 1545 hrs on Saturday, August 4, 1956.
BARC maintains eight research reactors and is engaged in reactor design and development.
