US nuclear fuel tech firm seeks India approvals, tie-ups

New Delhi: US-based Clean Core Thorium Energy (CCTE), which recently secured a licence from the American government that will enable it to export nuclear fuel overseas, is eyeing regulatory approvals in India for its thorium-based fuel technology and long-term tie-ups with the country's state-run companies.

CCTE will also discuss partnerships with the private sector once the changes proposed in India's nuclear energy laws to allow private participation are brought into effect, founder and chief executive Mehul Shah told ET.

Founded in 2017, CCTE has designed and patented its nuclear fuel technology for existing heavy-water reactors and is currently in the process of qualifying and licensing it for commercialisation.

The licence from the US Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration, called '10 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Part 810', granted to the company last week is essential to commercialise and export the fuel overseas, said Shah. "This export licence was granted to CCTE based on the formal assurances provided by India's Department of Atomic Energy, Nuclear Power Corporation and the AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board ) to the US government," he said. The company had signed a strategic partnership pact with state-run power producer NTPC last year to explore the development and deployment of the fuel in pressurised heavy-water reactors, and a memorandum of understanding with Larsen & Toubro to provide "efficient solutions in clean energy globally".

India's indigenous pressurised heavy-water reactors currently use natural uranium as its core fuel under the stage-I nuclear programme.

The country aims to deploy 100 GW of new nuclear capacities by 2047 and to have an active partnership with private companies in the sector, the last union budget had proposed to bring amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act. Shah said the company's Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life (ANEEL) fuel, which uses thorium-enriched uranium, fits with India's existing pressurised heavy water reactors without modification to the fuel bundles and with minor change to 220-MW small reactors and no modification to 700 MW reactors. In the initial stages, the ANEEL fuel would be made in the US and use thorium from there to expedite the time to market, but as the business expands in India, the company might explore using local thorium, Shah said.