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<br /> If reports are to be believed, <keyword id="2707285" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bharatiya-Nabhikiya-Vidyut-Nigam-Limited">Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited</keyword> (<keyword id="2263493" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bhavini">BHAVINI</keyword>), which is the implementing arm of the Department of Atomic Energy, is planning to construct six new <keyword id="3157588" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Fast-Breeder-Reactors">Fast Breeder Reactors</keyword> (FBRs) over the next 15 years.<br />
<br /> India's first 500-MWe <keyword id="1810440" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="prototype-fast-breeder-reactor">Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor</keyword> (<keyword id="81647" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="PFBR">PFBR</keyword>), situated at Kalpakkam, around 70 km from Chennai, is expected to become critical in March or April next year, as per <keyword id="2707284" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="P-Chellapandi">P Chellapandi</keyword>, BHAVINI’s Chairman and Managing Director.<br />
<br />
Chellapandi was speaking to reporters on sidelines of an International Conference, which is organised by Nuclear Fuel Complex. He further continued, "We are planning two more reactors. Once after one year of successful operation of this PFBR, we have to watch, then we will seek government sanction for construction of two 600 MW reactors at Kalpakkam. With the two proposed 600 MWs, we are optimising and constructing higher power with same costs."<br />
<br />
"Afterwards we have to think of new places for putting four more units. The site selection committee is choosing some places and are studying suitable size. Immediate vision is to construct two FBRs at Kalpakkam and four more beyond 2030," Chellapandi added.<br />
<br /> The construction of PFBR, which is designed by Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, is over and is impending clearance from the <keyword id="6540613" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Atomic-Energy-Regulatory-Board">Atomic Energy Regulatory Board</keyword> (<keyword id="60783" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="AERB">AERB</keyword>) in phases for sodium charging, fuel loading, reactor criticality and power rising (generation).<br />
<br />
"AERB had already sent many specialists to the PFBR and we are also going for review process. Some experts are going to meet this month and we are likely to get clearance for sodium charging. After this we have to get clearance for fuel loading and that may happen in January-February and the reactor may become critical in March or April 2016," Chellapandi said.<br />
<br />
The prototype fast breeder reactor uses MOX fuel, which is a combination of plutonium and uranium oxide.<br />
<br />
"We will replace some bundles with actual fuel bundles then reactor/unit may become critical. By March or April, chain reaction will be sustained. It will be neutronically commissioned (by putting fuel and generating power) by April," he said. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://cdn.youthkiawaaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/26/heres-must-say-nuclear-energy-india/nuclear-plant.jpg"><em>Image source</em></a><br />

Clean Energy Push: Six more nuclear reactors to be added to India’s fleet of 21

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>TerraPower</span></p><p class="caption">A TerraPower facility.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>TerraPower, an energy company co-founded by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/bill-gates">Bill Gates</a>, builds advanced <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nuclear-reactor">nuclear reactors</a>.</li><li>The company is developing a new reactor that uses molten salt instead of water as a coolant. TerraPower believes the design will be safer and more efficient than today's reactors.</li><li>Gates has supported <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nuclear-energy">nuclear energy</a> projects for several years, hoping that improvements in the technology can help curb the effects of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/climate-change">climate change</a>.</li><li>A new laboratory is slated to open next year, and TerraPower chief technology officer John Gilleland said the company plans on having a prototype reactor ready in about 10 years.</li></ul><p>Bill Gates <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-talks-private-nuclear-fission-plant-terrapower-2016-4">sees nuclear energy as a potential solution</a> to lowering carbon dioxide emissions around the world, and he has spent the past decade <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-wants-to-build-a-nuclear-reactor-2010-3">funding new ways to produce the energy</a> in a safe, affordable way.</p><p>About 10 years ago, Gates co-founded a company called <a href="https://terrapower.com/">TerraPower</a> to build new kinds of nuclear reactors.</p><p>TerraPower is developing a line of reactors that use a molten chloride coolant, drawing on a decades-old but still unused invention to lower costs and reduce waste. The most common reactors use light (or regular) water as a coolant. </p><p>Following a <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/energy-department-announces-new-investments-advanced-nuclear-power-reactors-help-meet">US Department of Energy investment worth $40 million</a> and a partnership with energy provider Southern Company, TerraPower plans on opening a new laboratory next year. Gates' company wants to develop a molten chloride prototype by 2030, and the laboratory will be used to test reactor materials in the meantime.</p><p>John Gilleland, the company's chief technical officer, told Business Insider that molten chloride designs are the "ultimate green reactor."</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It not only would allow you to produce electricity without carbon emissions, but by shipping the heat directly to some process in an industrial facility, you can provide the necessary heat to cause reactions to occur in industrial processing, or whatever you want to use it for, without carbon emissions," Gilleland said.</span></p><h2><strong>How a molten salt reactor works</strong></h2><p>Nuclear energy grew in prominence after 20th-century scientists figured out how to harness the atom's power, but high costs and safety concerns over dangerous radioactive waste have deterred many countries from investing in it. </p><p>Scientists at <a href="http://energy.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The-Future-of-Nuclear-Energy-in-a-Carbon-Constrained-World-Executive-Summary.pdf">Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Energy Initiative</a> say that within the electricity sector, nuclear energy would be the least expensive solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the next few decades. But nuclear energy currently accounts for only 11% of the world's electricity, <a href="http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/nuclear-power-in-the-world-today.aspx">according to the World Nuclear Association</a>. </p><p>Nuclear energy is produced when radioactive fuel is put into a reactor to trigger fission - a process in which the nucleus of an atom splits within a reactor core.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In light water reactors, solid fuel sits within cladding, or corrosion-resistant metal that stops radioactive pieces from contaminating the coolant. The water around the cladding helps turn a reaction's heat into steam for turbines, which generate electricity.</span></p><p>TerraPower's liquid chloride design, however, puts uranium fuel and the coolant in the same molten salt, Gilleland said. Fission can heat the salts directly as the mixture flows through the reactor core, and the mixture then goes through heat exchangers to generate heat or electricity, he said.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Light water reactors can't sustain reactions at very high temperatures because the coolant evaporates. With molten chloride, though, TerraPower could operate reactors at much higher temperatures than before. In addition to generating electricity, nuclear technology could be used in high-temperature processes like fertilizer production and oil refinery. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The materials inside light water reactors degrade quickly and need to be replaced roughly every 18 months, as it becomes more difficult to sustain fission with older fuel. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Molten chloride reactors, meanwhile, produce little residual waste and could theoretically run for years without the need to add fuel or get rid of waste.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">TerraPower's design is also less likely to be used in nuclear weapon production because its radioactive fuel is not separated out. </span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>TerraPower</span></p><p class="caption">A rendering of TerraPower's molten chloride nuclear reactor.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2><strong>TerraPower's new reactor was inspired by a 1960s experiment </strong></h2><p>Though TerraPower began working on its newest line of reactors just a few years ago, the design is based on Cold War-era molten salt technology. (TerraPower has also spent the past decade developing a traveling wave reactor, another advanced design.)</p><p>Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee developed a molten salt reactor in the 1960s, but funding came to a halt several years later as scientists raised concerns about corrosion and safety problems associated with the reactor.</p><p><em><strong>Read more: </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/thorium-molten-salt-reactors-sorensen-lftr-2017-2">A forgotten war technology could safely power Earth for millions of years. Here's why we aren't using it.</a></em></p><p>Now, with government funding and the support of billionaires like Gates, these reactors have another shot at hitting the market. TerraPower and Southern Company are working on their design with scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, the Electric Power Research Institute, and Vanderbilt University. </p><p>Several other startups are competing with Gates' company to commercialize similar molten salt reactors.</p><p>In April, Florida-based company <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-energy-rick-perry-announces-60-million-us-industry-awards-support-advanced">ThorCon received $400,000</a> from the US Department of Energy for a joint research project with Argonne National Laboratory. ThorCon aims to begin testing a molten salt-fueled fission reactor by 2023.</p><p><a href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/us-department-energy-provides-nearly-20-million-domestic-advanced-nuclear-technology">Department of Energy officials have also given $2.1 million</a> to Alabama-based Flibe Energy, which is using thorium instead of uranium.</p><p><span>The molten salt reactor movement extends beyond the US as well. </span><span>Terrestrial Energy, a Canadian company, wants to commercializes the design for its Integral Molten Salt Reactor by the late 2020s<a href="http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/IMSR-starts-second-stage-of-Canadian-design-review"></a>. </span><span>And in the UK, Moltex Energy is making a <a href="https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/08/understanding-the-super-safety-of-moltex-nuclear-plant-which-will-be-built-in-canada.html">Stable Salt Reactor</a>, which uses molten salt fuel. Moltex plans on deploying its product at a nuclear reactor site by 2030.</span></p><p>At the same time, some nuclear startups have struggled to make their designs commercially viable. MIT-affiliated Transatomic Power, for example, shut down in September after seven years of operation. The company, founded just after the 2011 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/fukushima">nuclear disaster in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture</a>, had claimed its reactors would produce electricity 75 times more efficiently than light water reactors.</p><p>In a <a href="http://www.transatomicpower.com/open-source/">blog post announcing the shutdown</a>, Transatomic CEO Leslie Dewan acknowledged there had been errors in early analyses and said the company was unable to scale up fast enough. Transatomic Power later open-sourced its intellectual property for other researchers to use.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Rick Wilking</span></p><p class="caption">Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates talks with a colleague before the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. on May 6, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2><strong>Clean energy is in urgent demand, and Gates' startup is at least a decade away from a working prototype</strong></h2><p>Renewable energy use is growing too slowly to prevent dangerous climate change on its own. </p><p><span>If governments don't implement new policies that reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the bulk of the world's energy will still come from fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency's 2018 <a href="https://webstore.iea.org/world-energy-outlook-2018">World Energy Outlook</a>. Solar, wind, and nuclear energy systems are not keeping up with global energy demands, the report said.</span></p><p><span><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-power-fall-rise-united-states-2017-6">'Energy is worth a war': US nuclear supremacy is collapsing, but there's a way to win it back</a></em></span></p><p>About 25% of the world's electricity currently comes from renewable energy sources, according to the World Energy Outlook. The International Energy Agency predicts that the share will rise to 40% by 2040, and nuclear energy can prove to be a vital factor in any changes.  </p><p>For Southern Company and TerraPower, the companies' ambitious plan could produce a new reactor well before 2040. The partners are developing a prototype with the capacity to produce up to 1,100 megawatts of electricity - enough to power about 825,000 homes, <a href="https://www.energy.ca.gov/glossary/ISO_GLOSSARY.PDF">according to the California Energy Commission</a>.<span></span></p><p><span>TerraPower's $20 million laboratory, set to open in Washington state next year, will help researchers ensure the reactor's safety. Gilleland said </span><span></span><span>TerraPower will run tests with depleted uranium, which is not used in fission, to determine which materials can hold molten salt without being damaged by corrosion.</span></p><p><span>Gates, who still serves as TerraPower's chairman, has emphasized that fewer people die in nuclear plant disasters than in coal mine or natural gas accidents. </span><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbbq_KdPzjE">During a 2010 speech at MIT</a>, he also </span><span>praised nuclear energy for its potential to benefit countries where solar and wind energy are scarce.</span><span></span><span></span><span></span></p><p><span>"It is infinite. You can filter out of the sea very cheaply enough uranium to run this thing for as long as the sun will shine," Gates said. "I love nuclear."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/america-high-rate-peanut-allergies-compared-countries-2018-10">Why so many Americans are allergic to peanuts</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

A Bill Gates-backed energy company is developing what could be a game-changing nuclear reactor

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11892748" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="china" source="Orion">China</keyword>'s rapid military expansion in recent years has alarmed other countries.</li><li>China's nuclear arsenal is much smaller than the US's, but US officials are warning about its growth.</li></ul><p>The US Department of Defense's <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2021/Nov/03/2002885874/-1/-1/0/2021-CMPR-FINAL.PDF" target="_top">annual report</a> on China's military, released in November, again illustrated the breathtaking pace and scale of China's conventional military modernization.</p><p>This year's report also highlighted a number of developments that could threaten the US more directly than China's conventional forces — namely China's "large-scale expansion of its nuclear forces."</p><p>That expansion is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/china-nuclear-missile-silos/2021/06/30/0fa8debc-d9c2-11eb-bb9e-70fda8c37057_story.html" target="_top">well documented</a>. The Pentagon's 2020 report on China's military noted that Beijing's stockpile of nuclear warheads would at least double by the end of the decade.</p><p>But this year's report includes a more urgent message: China "has accelerated its nuclear expansion" and is "exceeding the pace and size the DoD projected in 2020," the Pentagon says.</p><p>This month, a Chinese arms-control official <a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-beijing-7b1cc3db0e3ea4136dc8030e177dfa7d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">denied</a> those assertions, but Beijing's work is still seen as troubling. It's also a reminder of just how small China's nuclear arsenal was and is compared to other major powers, and it shows how dramatically Chinese thinking about <keyword id="12257805" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nuclear-weapons" source="Orion">nuclear weapons</keyword> has shifted in recent years.</p><h2>A smaller arsenal</h2><div type="image" title="China Lop Nur nuclear weapons test" height="1457" width="1942" msid="88700024" hostid="261"></div><p>The Pentagon estimates that China's stockpile of nuclear warheads is in the "low-200s," though <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat" target="_top">others</a> put it as high as 350.</p><p>By comparison, the US and Russia are believed to have 5,550 and 6,225 warheads, respectively, though they have <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/NewSTART" target="_top">agreed to limits</a> on how many can be deployed.</p><p>The lower estimate isn't that much larger than other nuclear powers. The UK is believed to have 225 warheads, France 290, India 156, and Pakistan 165. Israel and North Korea are believed to have stockpiles ranging from several dozen to a few hundred warheads.</p><p>China's smaller arsenal is in part a legacy of Sino-Soviet dynamics during the Cold War.</p><p>China initially received <a href="https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/chinese-nuclear-program" target="_top">extensive help</a> on its nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fighting-over-dispute-border-island-risked-chinese-soviet-nuclear-war-2021-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">but the Sino-Soviet split in the late 1950s</a> left China on its own. Beijing detonated its first nuclear weapon <a href="https://www.ctbto.org/specials/testing-times/16-october-1964-first-chinese-nuclear-test" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in 1964</a> and its first thermonuclear weapon <a href="https://www.ctbto.org/specials/testing-times/16-october-1964-first-chinese-nuclear-test" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in 1967</a>.</p><p>While other powers developed multiple delivery systems — the air-, ground-, and sea-launched weapons of the nuclear triad — Beijing initially struggled to do so, and the high cost of such weapons further limited how many China, then one of the poorest countries in the world, could make.</p><p>Moreover, the need to modernize its military in the face of more <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fighting-over-dispute-border-island-risked-chinese-soviet-nuclear-war-2021-3" target="_top">immediate</a> conventional <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-china-war-with-vietnam-means-for-its-next-war-2021-3" target="_top">threats</a> limited the resources China could spare on nuclear weapons. China also adopted a "no first use" policy, essentially precluding their use as offensive weapons.</p><p>"Given limited defense resources, the Chinese mainly focused on conventional forces and the modernization of a small deterrent nuclear force," Timothy Heath, a senior <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international" source="Orion">international</keyword> and defense researcher at the RAND Corporation think tank, told Insider.</p><h2>Nuclear buildup</h2><div type="image" title="ICBM silo construction in China" height="2250" width="4000" msid="88700025" hostid="261"></div><p>As the Cold War ended, China's threat perception changed. The Soviets disappeared, while the US became something of a partner.</p><p>Those shifts in the 1990s and early 2000s allowed China to become the world's second largest economy, which in turn enabled its immense military modernization effort. China first focused on conventional capabilities, but that effort has expanded.</p><p>"There is plenty of money available to buy fancy platforms like stealth aircraft, aircraft carriers, and a much larger nuclear arsenal," Heath said.</p><p>The Pentagon says China hopes to have 700 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2027 and at least 1,000 warheads by 2030. According to the report, China is constructing "fast breeder reactors and reprocessing facilities" that will increase its capacity to produce plutonium to support this expansion.</p><p>China's is also expanding and modernizing all legs of its nuclear triad.</p><div type="image" title="Chinese navy Type 094A Jin-class submarine" height="1333" width="2000" msid="88700026" hostid="261"></div><p>It is building more silos on the ground and increasing its <keyword id="12338392" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="icbm" source="Orion">ICBM</keyword> arsenal, currently estimated to number about 100. In 2020, China launched over 250 ballistic missiles, exceeding the total launched in 2018 and 2019.</p><p>The Chinese are also implementing a launch-on-warning posture they call "early warning counterstrike," which relies on large ground-based <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/china/lpar-x.htm" target="_top">phase-array radars</a> and geostationary early-warning satellites, at least one of which is already in orbit.</p><p>China's navy is adding more <a href="http://www.military-today.com/navy/jin_class.htm" target="_top">Type 094 Jin-class</a> nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines. Type 094 subs are armed with JL-2 sub-launched ballistic missiles, the range of which requires the subs to operate around Hawaii in order to reach the continental US.</p><p>But, according to the Pentagon, China is working on a newer sub, the Type 096, to pair with a new missile, the <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/jl-3-chinas-third-generation-nuclear-missile-sub-killer-180433" target="_top">JL-3</a>, that could reach the US mainland from Chinese waters.</p><p>China's air force has adopted the H-6N, the latest variant of its H-6 strategic bomber. The H-6N can conduct aerial refueling, which extends its range, and carry air-launched ballistic missiles. Last year, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-air-force-navy-combat-aircraft-catching-up-to-west-2021-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an H-6N was spotted carrying</a> what was believed to be a hypersonic missile.</p><h2>Deterrence</h2><div type="image" title="icbm minuteman" height="1315" width="2000" msid="88700027" hostid="261"></div><p>The overarching goal of China's military modernization is to reach parity and establish deterrence with the US.</p><p>China fears the US — with more nuclear weapons and a mature triad — could launch a preemptive strike against China's nuclear arsenal and launch capabilities, leaving China without adequate defenses. This has led Beijing to pursue more weapons and delivery systems so it has enough to survive an attack and to overcome US missile defenses.</p><p>"What they are trying to do is build enough missiles on enough platforms that the Chinese can be absolutely confident that they can get missiles past US defenses and strike US territory in the event of nuclear war," Heath said. "The Chinese hope to make it impossible for the US to be confident it can carry out a preemptive strike that annihilates China's nuclear capabilities."</p><p>The US has <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3160166/us-again-calls-arms-control-talks-china-amid-concern-over" target="_top">called on</a> China to join talks on an arms-control agreement similar to those between the US and Russia, but Beijing has shown no interest, pointing to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-beijing-7b1cc3db0e3ea4136dc8030e177dfa7d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the US's larger stockpile</a> and lack of a "<a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3153387/china-backs-no-first-use-nuclear-policy-calls-nations-cut" target="_top">no first use</a>" policy.</p><p>While the expansion of its nuclear arsenal may be the clearest example of China's preparation for a potential conflict, it's just one element of a broader buildup that troubles military officials and policymakers.</p><p>"It's important to see the modernizing nuclear arsenal as part of the bigger picture, in which the Chinese are building up their military capabilities in <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/05/space-force-china-military-523769" target="_top">space</a>, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/dods-2021-china-military-power-report-how-advances-ai-and-emerging-technologies-will-shape" target="_top">cyberspace</a>, and in the conventional force," Heath said. "It's all happening at the same time."</p>

Why China changed its mind about nuclear weapons and is bulking up its arsenal at 'accelerated' pace

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p><span>The&#xa0;</span><span> SNR-300&#xa0;was supposed to be Germany's&#xa0;first fast breeder nuclear reactor when <a href="http://www.amusingplanet.com/2011/06/wunderland-kalkar-nuclear-power-plant.html">construction began in 1972.</a>&#xa0;<span>The reactor was made&#xa0;to use plutonium as fuel, and it would output 327 megawatts of energy.</span></span></p><p>Built in Kalkar, the government had some concerns about the safety of the nuclear reactor, which delayed construction. The power plant was finished in 1985 - <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/nuclear-power-plant-theme-park/20068/">$5.3 billion later.</a></p><p>But after t<span>he <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-chernobyl-looks-like-today-2016-3">Chernobyl disaster</a>&#xa0;in 1986, the SNR-300 never got a chance to fully operate, and by 1991 the project was officially canceled. </span></p><p><span>This left the power plant completely unused, and it was eventually sold to a Dutch investor who decided to turn it into an amusement park: <a href="https://www.wunderlandkalkar.eu/en">Wunderland Kalkar</a>.&#xa0;</span></p><p>&#xa0;</p>

This failed $5.3 billion nuclear power plant in Germany is now an amusement park that gets hundreds of thousands of visitors each year

<br />
The global nuclear industry is going through a virtual meltdown on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, according to PTI.<br />
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This is happening even as India is investing heavily in nuclear energy. This collapse of atomic giants offers New Delhi a new opportunity and many in the Indian atomic establishment are silently celebrating this premature death of suitors who were wooing to put tens of atomic plants in India estimated to cost at least USD 150 billion.<br />
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"This atomic meltdown is a blessing in disguise" was how a top government official described the unfolding scenario.<br />
In addition, in these changed circumstances, if the Indian private industry plays its cards right, it could also provide an opportunity to the country to become a hub for low cost suppliers of nuclear technology. A little far-fetched but who knows how energy games get played in the future.<br />
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In a way the diplomatic noose that had been tightened around India's neck to buy super expensive French and American nuclear reactors has on its own been loosened if not shed at all.<br />
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As part of the protracted global negotiations on admitting India back into the nuclear commerce club, a kind of barter deal had happened and India had committed itself to buy French and American reactors, but now that the commercial operations of at least two of the foreign giants is floundering, India need not back down from its commercial commitments.<br />
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India can retain the moral high ground of wanting to buy the French and American reactors but since the companies themselves are in trouble no deals can be inked. India can once again hope to forge its own nuclear path free of shackles of forced imports of untested technologies.<br />
The American atomic giant Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC filed for 'bankruptcy' a week ago, last year the French nuclear giant Areva went through a similar process.<br />
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Both these companies had shown aggressive interest in setting up atomic power plants soon after the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal was inked. Both wanted a large chunk of the nuclear commerce worth billions of dollars that India was holding out as a promise once New Delhi was extricated from the atomic dog-house as a consequence of the landmark Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.<br />
All along as negotiations were going on around the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, there was a small but influential group in the Indian nuclear establishment that was most uncomfortable at importing so many different types of reactors.<br />
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This group felt that since India had mastered the making of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR's) the effort should ideally be to multiple this technology while alongside India's futuristic reactors the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor which uses plutonium as its main fuel and the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor that uses thorium as its main fuel could be promoted.<br />
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Jairam Ramesh, the engineer-turned-influential politician in the United Progressive Alliance government, was an early opponent of importing so many different types of reactors.<br />
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Towards mastering the PHWR, India on its own first enhanced the capacity of these reactors from 220 MW to 540 MW by constructing two of them at Tarapur in Maharashtra and then the same reactor has been modified to enhance the capacity to 700 MW with four units already under construction at Kakrapar and Rawatbhatta.<br />
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Among imported reactors India successfully started commercial operation of two 1000 MW units at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu these are made with Russian help. In the Indian nuclear establishment some felt the Russian reactors and the Indian three stage program was more than enough to ensure long term energy security for the country.<br />
<br />
Mastering several different technologies is a complex task and there was a lot of consternation among several senior scientists that if the entire Indo-US civilian nuclear deal were to be implemented then at least three new reactor types would have to mastered.<br />
These included Areva proposing to put six atomic plants each of 1650 MW capacity at Jaitapur in Maharashtra. Westinghouse was wanting to sell at least 6 reactors of 1200 MW each to be put up at Kovadda in Andhra Pradesh -- these were initially proposed to be put up at Mithivirdi in Gujarat but land acquisition issues forced Westinghouse to opt for a different site.<br />
<br />
General Electric was proposing to put a mega nuclear park as well. Each of these three different reactors are very different from each other and an entirely new set of people would have to be trained to safely operate these.<br />
<br />
Typically each new reactor operates for 60 years and then it takes another couple of decades to safely decommission them hence the investment of human resources is a commitment of at least a century.<br />
<br />
With Westinghouse filing for bankruptcy it is highly unlikely that India would order any reactors from them anytime soon. The idea was to order in one go 6 nuclear plants that would be delivered on a 'turnkey' basis. Now that Westinghouse itself says it can only supply the technology for the nuclear island and does not want to undertake any construction activity.<br />
<br />
Despite the fact India has already committed to pay Rs 100 crore to Westinghouse while ordering the AP 1000 reactors. These orders may obviously go into cold storage till Westinghouse and Toshiba its parent company in Japan iron out their differences.<br />
Westinghouse denies that the India project is derailed but experts say expect delays galore.<br />
<br />
Similarly, Areva the French giant that owned all the nuclear technology for the EPR 1650 MW reactor having been almost dissolved and the affairs taken over by 'Electricite de France' or EDF the French electricity utility, these reactors for which quite a bit of ground work was already done at Jaitapur has also been cold shouldered since no buyer government would want to get involved when a messy fight is ongoing in the French public sector companies on ownership of the atomic plants.<br />
<br />
On its own General Electric has been dragging its feet on bidding for reactors in India since its lawyers felt India's nuclear liability law was more 'people friendly' as opposed to the usual global nuclear liability law that is 'industry friendly'.<br />
<br />
In this scenario India is left with no other option but to multiply its indigenous fleet of 700 MW PHWR's and simultaneously expand its collaboration with Russia to buy at least 20 more Russian plants similar in nature but probably more advanced than the reactors operating at Kudankulam.<br />
<br />
After India was admitted into the nuclear fold to allow global nuclear commerce all restrictions at importing uranium have already gone and if India seeks to multiply manifold its own home grown reactors that should not be difficult.<br />
In addition since the co-operation with Russia is blossoming more light water reactors could well be ordered from Russia.<br />
<br />
This sudden change in the wind direction with American and French nuclear companies all doddering has in way brought India back to where it was in 2004 before US President George Bush decided to shake hands and be friends with India in the nuclear power sector.<br />
<br />
At that point India had its PHWR's and the Russian tech but what the country lacked was an assured supply of uranium fuel. India does not have sufficient native resources of uranium and if the nuclear program has to expand then importing uranium was the only option.<br />
<br />
Today the supply of imported uranium fuel is well guaranteed under global law thanks to the atomic embrace but this melt down of nuclear giants has tilted the balance in India's favour.<br />
Now without ever having to officially deny buying expensive French and American reactors, New Delhi can opt to expand its existing fleet of atomic plants on its own terms. This 'meltdown' is making the Indian nuclear establishment smile all the way.

Why is India
investing in nuclear energy when the whole world is experiencing a nuclear
meltdown?

<p><a href="http://codebreaker.codes/"></div><p></p></div></div>Humanity is in a serious pinch for energy.<p>The world population may balloon to <a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/2015-report.html">9 billion people by 2040</a>, up from <a href="https://www.census.gov/popclock/">7.36 billion in 2016</a>, and researchers believe this will translate to a <a href="http://www.eia.gov/outlooks/ieo/exec_summ.cfm">48% jump in energy consumption</a>.</p><p>Fossil fuels could slake the world's thirst for energy, but burning more would exacerbate climate change and threaten millions. And it'd be temporary, since known reserves are expected <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=38&amp;t=6">to</a> <a href="http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=coal_reserves">run</a> <a href="http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=58&amp;t=8">out</a> within a century or two.</p><p>Meanwhile, renewable energy like <a href="http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=26712">wind and solar</a>, though key parts of a solution, are no silver bullets - especially if the world is to meet a 2050 deadline set by the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/global-warming-paris-climate-change-accords-earth-day-2016-4">Paris Agreement</a>.</p><p>"You've got to be able to generate energy reliably. You've got to be able to generate energy on demand. And that's what wind and solar can't do, and will never be able to do," Kirk Sorensen, the CTO of nuclear energy startup <a href="http://flibe-energy.com/">Flibe Energy</a>, told Business Insider in <a href="http://www.marketplace.org/2016/12/14/tech/codebreaker-marketplace-and-tech-insider/s02-5-world-building">an episode of our podcast Codebreaker</a>, produced with Marketplace.</p><p>Nuclear reactors fit the bill: They're dense, reliable, emit no carbon, and - contrary to popular belief - are among the <a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/news/903/coal-and-gas-are-far-more-harmful-than-nuclear-power/">safest energy sources</a> on Earth. They currently supply <a href="http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=nuclear_use">20%</a> of America's energy, but this share may decline by 50% through 2040 as companies take decades-old reactors offline, according to <a href="https://art.inl.gov/INL%20ART%20TDO%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=%2fINL%20ART%20TDO%20Documents%2fAdvanced%20Demonstration%20and%20Test%20%20Reactor%20Options%20Study&amp;FolderCTID=0x0120001B2292E99D90F94582C950FF11E1865C">a July 2016 report</a> released by Idaho National Laboratory.</p><p>Fortunately, a powerful yet relatively unknown solution may have started with a Cold War-era airplane: "The Crusader" NB-36H jet bomber, which flew over two US states with a nuclear reactor in its belly.</p><p>The effort was part of the <a href="https://fas.org/nuke/space/anp-gao1963.pdf">Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program</a>. Although it was ultimately canceled, ANP spawned the development of a radical new type of power plant, called the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/molten-salt-reactor-technology-power-world-millions-years-2016-12">molten-salt reactor</a>.</p><p>Today, engineers like Sorensen are trying to revive the molten-salt reactor, which the US abandoned in the early 1970s, and fuel it with a practically infinite source of carbon-free energy: thorium.</p><h2>A push for nuclear-powered flight</h2><p><div></div></p><p>The US government in 1946 launched ANP as an effort to develop a nuclear-powered jet bomber.</p><p>It was an extreme means to a practical (and deadly) end: Fly at least 15,000 miles without refueling to give the plane a fearsome range of attack, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nuclear-powered-aircraft/">according to Scientific American</a>.</p><p>Physicist Alvin Weinberg, who <a href="https://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/wignerpat2.html">invented the most well-known type of nuclear reactor in 1945</a> - the light-water reactor (LWR) - rose to the occasion and began working up a solution as the director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.</p><p>But Weinberg didn't want to put a LWR into an airplane.</p><p>LWRs, which now provide 100% of America's nuclear energy, rely on solid nuclear fuel, typically one that contains uranium-235. If this "fissile" isotope of uranium is struck by a flying neutron, it can split, release gobs of energy, and shoot out more neutrons. This process is called fission. If there's enough fuel in one place, there will be enough neutrons flying around to self-sustain a fission chain-reaction.</p><p>The problem is that solid fuel is terribly inefficient. In fact, LWRs fission or "burn up" just a few percent of their fuel before it needs to be replaced. This is because waste products slowly accumulate in the fuel, absorb more and more neutrons, and poison the process of fission.</p><p>So Weinberg instead chose to develop an idea he'd heard during the Manhattan Project, which had since become "<a href="http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/2758/">kind of an obsession</a>" for him: a reactor that fissioned its fuel in a fluid of molten salt.</p><p>Molten-salt reactors are unlike any commercial nuclear power plants that exist today. Instead of using solid pellets of nuclear fuel, they dissolve nuclear fuel in a stable, blazing-hot fluid.</p><p>The fluid can dramatically increase the efficiency of nuclear fission by making it easy to remove fission products. This helps it burn up almost all the nuclear fuel and boosts energy output. Such reactors also can't melt down, since the fuel must be heated up to get fission going - cooling it down solidifies the salt and slows fission.</p><p>Weinberg and others knew such efficiency might allow engineers to shrink a reactor to fit inside an airplane. So he and his team at ORNL built a small molten-salt reactor as part of an offshoot program, called the Aircraft Nuclear Experiment (ARE).</p><h2>The birth of the molten-salt reactor</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>By 1954, Weinberg and his team had built a working prototype: a 2.5-megawatt power plant that used a small amount of uranium-235 dissolved in molten salt made of fluorine, sodium, and zirconium.</p><p>It was the first working molten-salt reactor ever built.</p><p>Inside the ARE's molten-salt fuel, uranium powered a fission chain-reaction. The atomic heat warmed up an adjacent loop of coolant (made of molten sodium) <a href="http://energyfromthorium.com/2015/06/01/msre-50th-anniversary/">from 1,200 to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit</a>. Incoming air cooled the sodium, and pumps returned it to the fluid-fueled reactor core for reheating.</p><p>"The Air Force was delighted by the aircraft reactor experiment," Weinberg <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=otQDyt9PeswC&amp;pg=PA106&amp;lpg=PA106&amp;dq=%22Aircraft+Reactor+Test%22+ornl&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=WBR3WOaJ_0&amp;sig=mM4G92oZu6cJMfew8x5qFNJq1jo&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjhmoa-34XRAhXI8YMKHdBqC4MQ6AEIODAG#v=onepage&amp;q=%22Aircraft%20Reactor%20Test%22%20ornl&amp;f=false">wrote</a> in his 1994 autobiography, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/First-Nuclear-Era-Times-Technological/dp/1563963582">The First Nuclear Era</a>," since this was hot enough to drive jet engines.</p><p>The Air Force immediately began retrofitting a B-36 jet bomber ("<a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/53184/brief-history-nuclear-airplanes">The Crusader</a>") to carry a nuclear reactor. It also funded ORNL's follow-up molten-salt reactor, called the Aircraft Reactor Test (ART).</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>But the Air Force canceled ART in 1957 to cut ballooning costs - and instead flew a different reactor it had funded in tandem.<p>The reactor, which was not a molten-salt reactor but a light-water reactor, was never connected to the plane's engines, since "The Crusader" was only intended to test radiation shielding. (The Air Force planned to later incorporate it into a purpose-built nuclear bomber called the WS-125.)</p><p>"The Crusader" <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160407094332/http://www.brookings.edu/about/projects/archive/nucweapons/anp">flew 47 demonstration flights</a> from 1955 through 1957 over New Mexico and Texas. It weighed nearly 18 tons fully-loaded and logged 218 hours of flight, of which the reactor ran for nearly 90 hours. And the crew lived.</p><p>But strapped with <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160407094332/http://www.brookings.edu/about/projects/archive/nucweapons/anp">high costs of about $7 billion</a> and faced with other priorities, including the creation of intercontinental ballistic missiles and the space race, President John F. Kennedy canceled all Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion projects in 1961.</p><p>Still, by that time, Weinberg had squeezed in several years' worth of research and $1 billion on molten-salt reactors.</p><p>By 1960, with the government funding the development of commercial nuclear power plants, Weinberg poured all of that knowledge into the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE). The MSRE went critical in 1965, produced power for thousands of hours through 1969, and was hailed a success.</p><p>The next stage was to develop MSRE into something called a breeder reactor.</p><h2>The death of Weinberg's dream</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Breeder reactors can create more fuel than they burn through fission, thanks to a process called neutron capture: a "fertile" atom will absorb a neutron from fission, then decay into (and "breed") the fuel. The fuel can then be fissioned to breed more fuel, and so on.</p><p>As long as fertile material is around, this can go on indefinitely. But breeding only works with a few radioactive isotopes, since it requires so many neutrons to work.</p><p>One is uranium-238, a fertile isotope which makes up more than 99% of natural uranium ore. It can be bred into plutonium-239, a fissile weapons material. (This is how the US made most of its nuclear arsenal.)</p><p>Another is thorium, which can be bred into uranium-233 - another fissile fuel, yet one that is very difficult to handle or make into bomb material.</p><p>"Right now we extract thorium inadvertently as a function of rare-earth mining," Sorensen said. "We go looking for neodymium, and other rare-earths - ironically for magnets for things like wind turbines - and we bring up quite a bit of thorium in the process, which right now is treated like a waste."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>But it's no waste.<p>According to "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/SuperFuel-Thorium-Energy-Source-Future/dp/113727834X">SuperFuel</a>," a 2013 book on thorium energy's demise and promise by journalist and author Richard Martin:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Thorium is around four times as abundant as uranium and about as common as lead. Pick up a handful of soil at your local park or ball-field; it contains about 12 parts per million of thorium. The United States has about 440,000 tons of thorium reserves, according to the Nuclear Energy Agency; Australia has the world's largest resources, at about 539,000 tons. Like uranium and plutonium, thorium makes a dense and highly efficient energy source: scoop up a few ounces of sand on certain beaches on the coast of India, it's said, and you'll have enough thorium to power Mumbai for a year."</p><p>Inside a molten-salt breeder reactor, which burns up almost all of its fuel and generates hundreds of times less waste than LWRs, <strong>Weinberg estimated that thorium could meet the world's energy needs for billions of years.</strong></p><p>But the government canceled the MSRE in 1972, Weinberg retired soon after, and he never revived his research.</p><p>The US ultimately favored the LWR design for its nuclear reactors because more of them had been built, the military liked the design for nuclear submarines, and they could also make nuclear weapons material.</p><h2>A push for next-generation nuclear power</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>In the 2000s, Sorensen and others (including China and India) began rediscovering the idea of thorium-fueled molten-salt reactors.</p><p>Sorensen is one of a few entrepreneurs who is trying to revive, modernize, and license his own version of the technology, called the liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR).</p><p><div></div></p><p>It's been rough. Developing nuclear power plants requires billions of dollars and is very slow, since they have to be proven safe at multiple stages before commercial-scale plants can be built - and the LFTR is unlike anything in service today.</p><p>"Maneuvering the licensing process is a huge challenge. The regulatory framework is not currently streamlined to support these novel innovative technologies," <a href="https://www.inl.gov/article/inl-taps-industry-senior-leader-to-lead-gain-as-the-initiative-continues-to-grow/">Rita Baranwal</a>, a materials engineer at INL, told Business Insider.</p><p>The Department of Energy estimates it may take until 2040 or 2050 to license a full-scale and commercial molten-salt power plant. Meanwhile, America's aging yet vital nuclear power plants aren't getting any younger.</p><p>That's why, this summer, INL tapped Baranwal to direct its new <a href="https://gain.inl.gov/SitePages/Home.aspx">Gateway for Accelerating Innovation in Nuclear</a> (GAIN) program, which is a technology accelerator and support system created for small-time nuclear entrepreneurs.</p><p>However it gets built - or whoever builds it - Sorensen is convinced that thorium-fueled molten-salt reactors are the key to solving Earth's energy blues for good.</p><p>"This is something that's going to benefit their future tremendously, it's going to lead to a new age of human success," he said, speaking to the world at large. "And if they want that, they need to be talking to their elected officials and demanding it, in fact, and saying 'we want to see these things happen.' Because only a society that decides to embrace this kind of technology is going to ultimately realize its benefits."</p><p><strong><em>For more on molten salt reactors and solving climate change, listen to the "world building" <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2016/12/14/tech/codebreaker-marketplace-and-tech-insider/s02-5-world-building">episode</a> of the <a href="http://codebreaker.codes">Codebreaker</a> podcast from Business Insider and Marketplace. Subscribe to the whole series on <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/codebreaker/id1049341702?mt=2">iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.&#xa0;</em></strong></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/molten-salt-reactor-technology-power-world-millions-years-2016-12">This Cold War-era technology could safely power the world for millions of years</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="hoOXhiODE6mtYAnzOSgYhFwj_jwPpGtb" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A Cold War technology designed to make jets fly for days might solve Earth's looming energy crisis

A forgotten war technology could safely power Earth for millions of years. Here's why we aren't using it

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Nearly 50 years after its first flight, the <keyword id="59059" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="F-16">F-16</keyword> remains in service with air forces around the world.</li><li>The <keyword id="6404246" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="us-air-force">US Air Force</keyword> was set to get rid of its F-16s in the coming decade, but delays on its new fighters mean the <keyword id="10788762" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="fighting-falcon">Fighting Falcon</keyword> will fly on.</li></ul><p>February 2 was the 47th anniversary of the first official test flight for the F-16 Fighting Falcon.</p><p>Designed by General Dynamics in the 1970s, the Falcon - or the Viper, as it is commonly and affectionately known by its American pilots - quickly became one of the best fighter jets in history.</p><p>Its lightweight, powerful engines, and groundbreaking electronics gave it an edge over almost all of its contemporary adversaries. Its modular airframe proved so adaptable that over a dozen different versions of the fighter have been made since its first flight.</p><p>About 4,600 F-16s have <a href="https://www.airforcemag.com/lockheed-new-demand-for-f-16s-could-push-type-past-5000-mark/" target="_top">been built</a> since 1974, and the fighter is currently in service with 26 countries.</p><h2>The 'fighter mafia'</h2><div type="image" title="Air Force F-16 YF-16 YF-17" height="1500" width="2000" msid="81101293" hostid="261"></div><p>The F-16 came about as a result of requests from a group known as the "fighter mafia," a group of Air Force officers and civilian defense analysts who were unsatisfied with the performance of the F-4 Phantom II in Vietnam, and believed that the Air Force's emphasis on larger, heavier fighters armed only with missiles was a mistake.</p><p>What was needed, they argued, was a cost-effective <keyword id="70380" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Fighter-jet">fighter jet</keyword> that was small, lightweight, fast, and highly maneuverable. The need for a cheaper and lighter fighter grew when the operating costs of the new F-15 became apparent.</p><p>In 1969, after intense lobbying, the group was able to secure funding for the Lightweight Fighter program. By 1974, two prototype models from two companies were shown to the Air Force: the YF-16 from General Dynamics and the YF-17 from Northrop Grumman.</p><p>The YF-16 was selected as the winner in 1975, though the YF-17 would eventually see service with the Navy and Marine Corps as the F/A-18. By 1980, F-16s were in service with the US Air Force as well as with NATO members Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway.</p><h2>A modern design</h2><div type="image" title="Air Force F-16 fighter jet canopy pilot cockpit" height="1200" width="1800" msid="81101294" hostid="261"></div><p>The Falcon featured a number of new technologies and systems that put it above its competitors. Its engine could push it to twice the speed of sound, and the cropped delta wings gave it incredible maneuverability, including the ability to pull 9g turns - the first US fighter to do so.</p><p>The bubble canopy gave the pilot unobstructed forward and upward vision and improved side and rear vision. The cockpit seat-back angle, set at 30 degrees instead of the usual 13, increased pilot comfort and gravity force tolerance, enabling high-g turns and maneuvers.</p><p>The F-16 was the first production aircraft to replace manual flight controls with a digital "fly-by-wire" system, increasing response time and pilot control. It also featured side-stick controls with a hands-on throttle-and-stick set up, giving better ergonomics and allowing the pilot to fly and perform multiple functions at the same time.</p><p>Brand-new radar systems and electronics, like concurrent head-mounted and heads-up display, enabled pilots to track and engage enemy aircraft quickly and efficiently with its large arsenal: up to 17,000 pounds of air-to-air missiles and bombs mounted on 11 hardpoints, as well as a 20 mm Vulcan rotary cannon.</p><h2>A long service record</h2><div type="image" title="Israeli F-16" height="1362" width="2000" msid="81101295" hostid="261"></div><p>The F-16's combat debut was with the Israeli Air Force, shooting down a pair of Syrian Mi-8 helicopters in April 1981 and a MiG-21 in July that year.</p><p>On June 7, 1981, the Israelis showed the F-16 could conduct airstrikes, when, during <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/38-years-later-pilots-recall-how-iran-inadvertently-enabled-osiraq-reactor-raid/" target="_top">Operation Opera</a>, they destroyed Iraq's unfinished Osirak nuclear reactor. In <a href="https://theaviationgeekclub.com/operation-drugstore-when-iaf-fighters-shot-down-88-syrian-aircraft-during-air-battles-over-the-bekaa-valley/" target="_top">one engagement</a> in 1982, during the Lebanese Civil War, Israeli F-16s shot down 44 Syrian aircraft, 11 more than the Israeli F-15s that took part in the battle.</p><p>The F-16 saw combat in American service for the first time during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, when 249 Air Force F-16s <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/appendix/whitepaper.html" target="_top">flew</a> over 13,000 sorties, more than any other aircraft during the campaign. Only seven were lost, three to enemy fire.</p><p>The Desert Storm missions were mostly airstrikes, but American F-16s did score their first air-to-air kills during the ensuing Operation Southern Watch, downing a MiG-25 in December 1992 and a MiG-23 in January 1993.</p><p>US F-16s have seen action in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. F-16s in service with other countries have flown combat missions over Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.</p><p>F-16s are also seen regularly over the <a href="https://theaviationist.com/2020/09/05/portuguese-f-16s-deployed-to-malbork-poland-for-nato-enhanced-baltic-air-policing/" target="_top">Baltic</a> and <a href="https://www.airforcemag.com/inside-natos-enhanced-air-policing-mission/" target="_top">Black Sea</a> as part of NATO's air-policing operations and over the <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/01/24/us-reaffirms-taiwan-support-after-china-sends-warplanes.html" target="_top">Taiwan Strait</a>, where Taiwan regularly scrambles its F-16s to intercept Chinese military aircraft.</p><h2>Future fighters</h2><div type="image" title="Taiwan air force F-16 fighter jet" height="932" width="1400" msid="81101296" hostid="261"></div><p>About 1,300 F-16s are in service with the US Air Force, and the jet is still loved by its pilots.</p><p>The Air Force originally planned to retire its F-16s in 2025, but budget constraints and the slow delivery of its intended replacement, the F-35, forced the service to initiate a Service Life Extension Program for its F-16s, enabling the fighters to fly until at least 2048.</p><p>The Air Force is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-air-force-is-considering-buying-new-f16-fighter-jets-2021-2" target="_top">reportedly</a> interested in buying brand new F-16s, as both F-16s and F-15EXs were in the service's fiscal year 2023 budget request. These would be the first new F-16s to enter US service since 2005.</p><p>F-16s are still being built for <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> customers, and "that system has some wonderful upgraded capabilities that are worth thinking about as part of our capacity solution," Will Roper, former assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, <a href="https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/us-air-force-talks-new-f-16-orders-latest-acquisition-shake" target="_top">told Aviation Week</a> in January.</p><p>It is not known what type of F-16 the Air Force may buy. The most advanced <a href="https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29897/heres-what-the-ball-on-the-nose-of-uaes-block-60-f-16e-f-desert-falcon-does" target="_blank" rel="noopener">version</a> in active service, the F-16E/F Block 60 "Desert Falcon," is flown by the United Arab Emirates Air Force.</p><p>Lockheed Martin, which bought General Dynamics in 1993, has developed the Block 70/72, the newest production F-16, which features large external fuel tanks and new, advanced avionics, notably the APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, and the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System, which has already <a href="https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/autogcas.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saved pilots</a>.</p><p>Lockheed has also developed <a href="https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/f-16.html#advanced-weapons" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the F-16V</a>, its latest, most advanced upgrade configuration, which several countries have <a href="https://theaviationist.com/2021/01/20/first-greek-f-16v-performs-maiden-flight-after-block-72-upgrade/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">purchased</a>, including <a href="https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/taiwan-f-16-upgrade-aims-for-2023-completion/141502.article" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Taiwan</a>.</p>

You Searched For "prototype fast breeder reactor" and got 9 results

Clean Energy Push: Six more nuclear reactors to be added to India’s fleet of 21

BI India Bureau

A Bill Gates-backed energy company is developing what could be a game-changing nuclear reactor

Peter Kotecki,Peter Kotecki

Why China changed its mind about nuclear weapons and is bulking up its arsenal at 'accelerated' pace

Benjamin Brimelow

This failed $5.3 billion nuclear power plant in Germany is now an amusement park that gets hundreds of thousands of visitors each year

Courtney Verrill

Why is India investing in nuclear energy when the whole world is experiencing a nuclear meltdown?

BI India Bureau

A Cold War technology designed to make jets fly for days might solve Earth's looming energy crisis

Dave Mosher

A forgotten war technology could safely power Earth for millions of years. Here's why we aren't using it

Dave Mosher

The F-16 first flew 47 years ago, and the Air Force may keep it flying decades longer due to problems with the F-35

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