Nuclear fuel cycle and regulatory aspects

India has adopted a closed nuclear fuel cycle for optimal use of the modest uranium reserves and the vast reserves of thorium available in the country The front-end of the cycle starts from exploration of atomic minerals, mining of the ores on a commercial scale, physical and chemical processing of the ores to recover uranium and thorium and their subsequent fabrication to fuel pellets and bundles. The uranium based nuclear fuel undergoes fission in a nuclear power plant to generate power The spent nuclear fuel so produced is stored in a designated facility before it is reprocessed to recover the unreacted uranium and the plutonium which are again fabricated into unclear fuel for the next cycle of operation. This forms the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle and it also includes the immobilization of highly radioactive waste generated from reprocessing of spent fuel