Thorium is estimated to be about three times as abundant in the Earth’s crust as uranium.
Therefore, effective utilization of Th in the nuclear fuel cycle would significantly increase fuel availability for fission reactors in the future. It is also thought to be a route for achieving energy independence for countries with large thorium but limited uranium reserves, such as India and Brazil. (p.182)
…These unique features of Th – U-233 fuel combine to allow the proven light water reactor technology to be used for achieving self sustainable reactor operation thus avoiding the development of more complex fast reactors with large cost uncertainty.
It is also worth noting that even in fast breeder reactors, the thorium fuel cycle may offer some advantages with respect to flexibility of the core design. One of the safety related concerns common to all fast spectrum reactors is the positive reactivity feedback due to the coolant thermal expansion. The use of Th fuel reduces the magnitude of this effect (or may even eliminate it) because of the smaller increase in the number of neutrons released per absorption in U-233 as the spectrum hardens as compared with other fissile nuclides, and also due to the smaller fast fissions effect of Th-232 compared to U-238. (p.183)
Sourced from: Appendix A. Thorium Fuel Cycle options in: MIT Energy Initiative: The Future of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle http://web.mit.edu/mitei/research/studies/nuclear-fuel-cycle.shtml
http://web.mit.edu/mitei/research/studies/documents/nuclear-fuel-cycle/The_Nuclear_Fuel_Cycle-append.pdf
Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/indian-defence/6070-indian-scientists-design-thorium-reactor.html
Great thorium robbery impacting India's nuclear doctrine and energy security
Source: http://nfrcoalition.blogspot.in/2012/08/thorium-reactors.html
“…November (2007) the Indian minister of state Prithviraj Chavan declared that India has extracted 30,000 tons of thorium concentrate to prepare for the third stage of the nuclear power program…”
Thorium fuel cycle in India
In the early 1950s India started research and development efforts on the thorium / uranium fuel cycle and thorium-fuelled reactor programs. India can be considered as the main pioneer in developing the thorium fuel cycle and has several advanced facilities to this. The Indian authorities consider a closed nuclear fuel cycle of crucial importance for its three-stage nuclear power program with its long-term objective of tapping India’s vast thorium resources. In the front end of the cycle, the program is providing inputs to the indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) phase. This type of reactor is elsewhere known as CANDU, the Canadian heavy-water reactors fuelled by natural uranium. Though the long-term goal of India’s nuclear program is to develop a heavy-water thorium cycle, their PHWRs and lightwater reactors are currently used to produce plutonium. Hence, ‘fertile’ thorium and thorium-based fuel has to be utilized in combination with ‘fissile’ material (for now plutonium-239 or uranium-235) in order to breed ‘fissile’ uranium-233. Besides a breeding product this uranium-233 has to become also the feeding ‘fissile’ material in the future for the just described first stage of the aimed thorium-based nuclear fuel cycle in order to close this fuel cycle. The second stage in the fuel cycle uses fast breeder reactors (FBRs) burning the plutonium to breed uranium-233 from thorium. The blanket around the core will have uranium as well as thorium, so that further plutonium is produced as well as the uranium-233. Finally, in the third stage or the back end of the fuel cycle Advanced Heavy Water Reactors (AHWRs) are supposed to burn the uranium-233 and the plutonium with thorium, getting about two thirds of their power from the thorium, according to the lobby. Up to a few years ago the lobby mentioned a figure of 75 per cent.
Despite the glorifying stories from Indian officials even the first stage of their indigenous nuclear energy program is not yet fully achieved. The two PHWR-units in Kakrapar were the first reactors in the world that have tested thorium. In 1995, Kakrapar-1 achieved only about 300 days of full power operation and Kakrapar-2 about 100 days utilizing thorium fuel. More details are not available. In fact the first stage has not passed the laboratory scale. Irradiation of thorium fuel bundles takes place in a research reactor at Trombay. The use of thorium-based fuel on a ‘commercial’ scale is planned in Kaiga-1 and -2 and Rajasthan-3 and -4 reactors, which are currently under construction. Finally these thorium-based PHWRs can only become ‘commercial’ when India has sufficient resources of natural uranium to feed these PHWRs in order to get plutonium as the fissile material to start the thorium based nuclear fuel cycle.
After operating a fast breeder test reactor (FBTR) for two decades India is now on the brink of launching a commercial fast breeder program to take India's ambitious thorium program to the second stage. India has vast reserves of thorium but modest amounts of uranium. Scientists at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, have said the conversion of thorium into uranium-233 fuel would depend on the rate of growth of the second-stage, fast-breeder reactors. Currently a 500 MW prototype FBR at Kalpakkam is under construction and is expected to become operational in about four years. It will have a blanket with thorium and uranium to breed fissile uranium-233 and plutonium respectively. Three more of such FBRs have been announced for construction by 2020.
Other steps the Indian government has taken to develop appropriate technologies for the utilization of thorium are the setting up of the research reactor Kamini at Kalpakkam, operating since 1997, using uranium-233 fuel obtained from irradiated thorium, and the development of technologies to reprocessirradiated thorium fuel and in fabricating uranium-233 based fuel. According to Indian scientists the planned FBRs can use about 30 tons of thorium for conversion. The actual amount of thorium available for conversion from the 30,000 tons of thorium concentrate would depend on the level of concentration. A one per cent concentration would mean 300 tons while a 10 per cent concentration would mean 3,000 tons of thorium available for conversion. Thorium in India is mainly recovered from monazite, a naturally occurring mineral. Monazite is produced as a co-product along with substances such as ilmenite, zircon and rutile.
In a recent interview the Indian minister of state Chavan said India needed to have international cooperation to acquire uranium technology and fuel, which was insufficient in the country. In a veiled reference to the Indo-U.S. deal he said: “The government is trying for international cooperation in this sector and also trying to convince the House to allow it to obtain uranium to speed up the process of atomic nuclear fuel.” [..] “If the government is allowed to go for international cooperation, there will be enough uranium available that will speed up our nuclear program much faster.”
Source: http://www.laka.org/info/publicaties/2008-thorium.pdf Published Feb. 2008
Thorium is more abundant in nature than uranium.
It is fertile rather than fissile, and can be used in conjunction with fissile material as nuclear fuel.
Thorium fuels can breed fissile uranium-233.
Thorium can be used as a nuclear fuel through breeding to fissile uranium-233. Although not fissile itself, Th-232 will absorb slow neutrons to produce uranium-233 (U-233)a, which is fissile (and long-lived). The irradiated fuel can then be unloaded from the reactor, the U-233 separated from the thorium, and fed back into another reactor as part of a closed fuel cycle. Alternatively, U-233 can be bred from thorium in a blanket, the U-233 separated, and then fed into the core.
In one significant respect U-233 is better than uranium-235 and plutonium-239, because of its higher neutron yield per neutron absorbed. Given a start with some other fissile material (U-233, U-235 or Pu-239) as a driver, a breeding cycle similar to but more efficient than that with U-238 and plutonium (in normal, slow neutron reactors) can be set up. (The driver fuels provide all the neutrons initially, but are progressively supplemented by U-233 as it forms from the thorium.)
However, there are also features of the neutron economy which counter this advantage. In particular the intermediate product protactinium-233 (Pa-233) is a neutron absorber which diminishes U-233 yield.
The use of thorium as a new primary energy source has been a tantalizing prospect for many years. Extracting its latent energy value in a cost-effective manner remains a challenge, and will require considerable R&D investment.
Thorium is a naturally-occurring, slightly radioactive metal discovered in 1828 by the Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius, who named it after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. It is found in small amounts in most rocks and soils, where it is about three times more abundant than uranium. Soil commonly contains an average of around 6 parts per million (ppm) of thorium.
Thorium exists in nature in a single isotopic form - Th-232 - which decays very slowly (its half-life is about three times the age of the Earth).
When pure, thorium is a silvery white metal that retains its lustre for several months. However, when it is contaminated with the oxide, thorium slowly tarnishes in air, becoming grey and eventually black. Thorium oxide (ThO2), also called thoria, has one of the highest melting points of all oxides (3300°C).
The most common source of thorium is the rare earth phosphate mineral, monazite, which contains up to about 12% thorium phosphate, but 6-7% on average. Monazite is found in igneous and other rocks but the richest concentrations are in placer deposits, concentrated by wave and current action with other heavy minerals. World monazite resources are estimated to be about 12 million tonnes, two-thirds of which are in heavy mineral sands deposits on the south and east coasts of India. Thorium recovery from monazite usually involves leaching with sodium hydroxide at 140°C followed by a complex process to precipitate pure ThO2.
Thorite (ThSiO4) is another common mineral. A large vein deposit of thorium and rare earth metals is in Idaho. (World Nuclear Association, Forbes, 9/11/2011)
SPECIAL FEATURE: BARC AT 50
Innovative reactor
T.S. SUBRAMANIAN
The AHWR project enters a crucial phase with the regulatory board completing the pre-licensing appraisal of the reactor's design.
A model of the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor at BARC.
V.V. KRISHNAN
THE construction of India's futuristic Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is expected to begin by the end of 2007, according to Ratan K. Sinha, Director, Reactor Design and Development Group (RD&DG), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). The first pour of the concrete will take place in a few months. The reactor will be powered by thorium, described as "the fuel of the future". The 300-MWe AHWR will signal the beginning of the third stage of India's three-stage nuclear power programme. It will use the naturally available thorium and the fissile material, uranium-233, as fuel. Boiling water will be the coolant and heavy water, the moderator.
According to Sinha, although the reactor was initially designed to generate 235 MWe, its capacity has been stepped up "through certain additional innovations and experimentation which helped in optimising the margins". The reactor will also produce 6,00,000 litres of desalinated water a day, which will meet the process requirements of demineralised water of the plant and the drinking water requirements of the plant staff. "This has been a gain in terms of the additional capacity we could envisage through innovations," he said.
The AHWR project has entered a crucial phase with the regulatory body, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), completing the pre-licensing appraisal of the reactor's innovative design. There is a mood of expectation at Engineering Hall No.7 where the RD & DG is located. It was in this hall that several important elements of India's ambitious atomic energy programme took shape. Today, this cavernous hall houses huge engineering facilities, massive robots called refuelling machines, computerised and control rooms, among other things. Keeping a direct tab on the development of the AHWR is Anil Kakodkar.
Homi J. Bhabha envisaged a three-stage programme. The first stage is in commercial domain with 15 PHWRs that use natural uranium as fuel for generating electricity. The second stage, which envisages construction of FBRs, has begun with the construction of the 500-MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor pressing ahead at Kalpakkam. The FBRs will use plutonium-uranium mixed oxide as fuel. Four more FBRs with a capacity of 500 MWe will be built before 2020. In the third stage, reactors using thorium as fuel will be built.
Sinha, who is also the Director, Design, Manufacturing and Automation Group at BARC, argued that although the three-stage programme was conceived five decades ago, it was still valid. Only about 10,000 MWe of nuclear power can be generated with the limited quantity of natural uranium available in the country. Even at the current rate of electricity generation in the world, the known and reasonably assured resources of natural uranium in the world will not last more than 60 years. With a boom in population and the resultant increase in the country's energy requirements, "the bottom line is that we have to reach a thorium-utilisation programme fast", Sinha said.
Besides, "we have plenty of thorium available and that too of good quality," he said. India's three-stage programme with its step-by-step approach acquires relevance because thorium cannot be used straightaway in a reactor to generate electricity.
"We cannot use thorium alone as a fuel in a reactor like we do with natural uranium," explained Sinha. Unlike natural uranium, thorium does not have any fissionable isotopes. Unlike thorium, uranium-233 does not occur in nature as a constituent of natural uranium. Thorium has to be used in some other system (reactor) to convert it into uranium-233. The AHWR will use thorium as feed and convert it into fissile uranium-233, which will then undergo fission in situ to generate electricity. The AHWR will also use a small amount of plutonium.
But small quantities of plutonium reprocessed from the PHWRs alone will not be sufficient to support a big electricity-generation programme that will use large quantities of thorium. It is here that the relevance of the FBRs comes in. The breeder reactors will breed not only enough plutonium but can convert thorium into uranium-233.
"So we need the Fast Breeder Reactors... Since we cannot wait for the FBRs to produce uranium-233, we first want to use the plutonium produced from the PHWRs for the demonstration of new technologies relevant for the third stage. That is why we are going in for the AHWR," explained Sinha.
Its design has several innovative features. The AHWR will employ what are called passive safety features. According to a DAE note, these features will "achieve the conflicting goals of safety and economy".
The reactor will have no pumps and there will be no moving parts. "It neither depends on help from instrumentation nor relies on control mechanism," the note says. Passive safety depends on natural phenomena such as gravity, natural convection and stored energy.
The note says: "The AHWR will be one of the first-ever power reactors employing natural circulation, also known as thermo-siphoning, for cooling of the reactor core under all conditions."
Elimination of major equipment such as coolant pumps, driving motors and power equipment will cut down the plant cost. In the case of an accident, water stored in a huge overhead tank inside the reactor building will ensure core cooling for three full days, without any human intervention. Besides, the safety of the reactor will not depend on the operator's actions alone. The reactor will have three shut-down systems, including one to take care of postulated `insider threat' scenario.
Although the AHWR will be built in the near-term, the technologies in the reactor will be relevant for an entire era when thorium will be the fuel for a generation of reactors. Since the innovations will have a bearing on the safety of the reactor.
BARC felt it necessary to have the new safety features reviewed by the AERB under the pre-licensing safety reviews. Moreover, these safety features were not addressed by the existing system of regulatory documents, codes and guides that were prepared for the current generation of reactors.
Sinha said: "The design has many first-of-its-kind features. It has no pumps. The fuel itself is of a new kind. So we felt that our regulatory authorities should have a good look at some of these unique features and help us to know whether more validations are needed and whether we should do more R&D. For the past year and a half, the AERB has been having a good look at the design... Various safety features have been discussed. Deviations from the existing [safety] practices of the current generation of reactors have been examined in great detail."
The safety review committee concluded that the reactor's safety features were adequate for the reactor to go up for a formal licensing process.
The DAE is going ahead with further design validations of this reactor. A large experimental facility has been built in Engineering Hall No.7 so that RD & DG personnel could simulate, on a full scale, conditions that will prevail under various normal operations and postulated events of different kinds. This will help in validating the computer codes, which were originally used in designing such large-scale experiments. Such codes have been validated for small-scale experiments.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl24...4003210600.htm
Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/indian-defence/6070-indian-scientists-design-thorium-reactor.html#ixzz25H37dM3w
special article
1 September 2012
Doomed UPA~I
In The Name Of God, Resign And Go
Sam Rajappa
As Shakespeare had said in Julius Caesar:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood leads to fortune,
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and miseries.
THE UPA II government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has missed the tide. By continually taking unjust decisions, depriving the needy of justice and robbing the poor of their rights, he has lost the right to preside over the destiny of India. His continuance in office can only add to the miseries of the people. In the ongoing coal scandal, the question one should ask is what made the Prime Minister cling to the coal portfolio for so long almost as if there was a dearth of talent in his jumbo Council of Ministers and that he did not have enough responsibility without poking his nose into allotment of coal blocks. No Prime Minister before him has coveted coal in quite the same manner.
His explanation that coal blocks were given at subsidised price to private companies so that the common man could get electricity, cement and steel at a reasonable price is an insult added to the injury inflicted on people groaning under the weight of price rise of these items. Cement price has scaled such Himalayan heights in the last few years that building a shelter has become out of bounds for the common man. Steel price is not lagging far behind. As far as electricity is concerned, the less said the better.
Giving away coal blocks to those not equipped to mine and keeping the black gold in mother earth was a definite ploy to create a power crisis to prepare the ground for signing the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement and importing foreign nuclear reactors to generate electricity at huge cost to the exchequer.
Coal is a national asset. Indira Gandhi nationalised the coal industry in 1973 and put an end to profiteering by private mine owners, and stabilised its price for the common good. During Prime Minister PV Narasinha Rao’s time, Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister paved the way for its privatisation in 1993 and opened the floodgates of corruption.
When the UPA came to power in 2004, Sibu Soren was allotted the coal portfolio. On his getting arrested in a murder case, Manmohan Singh took over the portfolio. As charges of corruption mounted, he assured Parliament in 2006 that all future allotment would be done through competitive bidding. The Law Ministry advised that the change could be brought about by an administrative order, but the Prime Minister routed for an amendment to the Mines and Minerals Act to play for time and obtained second opinion from the Law Ministry to suit his plan.
Ministers are there to oblige the Prime Minister. Did he not obtain legal opinion of HR Bharadwaj, former Union Law Minister, before de-freezing Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi’s London bank account into which part of Bofors kickback was remitted? Even six years after Manmohan Singh’s assurance in Parliament, the proposed amendment to the Coal Act has not seen the light of day. Meanwhile, allotment to crony capitalists has continued.
While the Comptroller and Auditor-General assessed the windfall gains to the coal block allottees at Rs 1.86 lakh crore, official records in the Coal Ministry tell a different story. Between 1993 and 2010, 184 mines had been allotted to favoured private parties and a total of 21,531.32 million tonnes of coal had been taken out. The average sale price during this period was Rs 2,500 per tonne. The cost of exploitation, including a profit margin of 25 per cent, worked out to Rs 1,250 per tonne. By this calculation, the presumptive loss to the government is about Rs 27 lakh crore.
If the government’s policy not to auction coal blocks was to speed up industrialisation, one could understand. But that was not the case. It was to leave the coal in the ground until Manmohan Singh’s goal of a Indo-US Nuclear Agreement was signed and precious thorium, the future fuel of nuclear energy, was bartered away for a mess of pottage.
Thorium is the future fuel cycle to produce long-term nuclear energy with low radio-toxicity waste. There has always been a strong incentive for the development of thorium fuels and fuel cycles because of large deposits of this precious mineral in the form of monazite in the country’s beach sands compared to the very modest uranium reserves. Thorium cycles are feasible in all existing thermal and fast reactors without major modifications in the engineering systems, reactor control and the reactivity devices. The proceedings of the annual conference of Indian Nuclear Society on “Power from thorium: status, strategies and directions,” held in Mumbai in June 2000, and the EURATOM report on thorium as a waste management option, give a comprehensive review of all aspects of thorium fuels and fuel cycles.
Former President Abdul Kalam has been stressing the importance of India pursuing the thorium fuels route for its nuclear power plants instead of going with a begging bowl to the USA and the Nuclear Supplier Group countries to fuel the existing 17 nuclear reactors based on enriched uranium, and accept their conditionalities which are detrimental to our national interests. The moment India tries another Pokhran-type peaceful nuclear explosion, the Nuclear Supplier Group would not only stop supplying enriched uranium but also remove past supplies from the 17 running reactors in the country and bring them to a grinding halt.
Thanks to our nuclear isolation prior to signing the Indo-US Agreements, scientists at BARC developed a research fast breeder reactor using thorium as fuel and it has been functioning at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, 60 km from Chennai, for the last 27 years. Based on the experience gained, work began on a 500 MW fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam which should have been commissioned in 2010 but the UPA government is more interested in importing highly risky uranium based nuclear reactors from foreign countries and going slow on the indigenous technology.
Explaining the salient features of the indigenously built 500 MW thorium fuelled reactor, SC Chetal, director of IGCAR, said that it would breed more fuel than it consumes. Thorium is rated as a clean fuel because of its low radio-toxicity. The long term sustainability of the indigenous nuclear power programme in India depends to a great extent on large-scale utilisation of the vast thorium resources for breeding uranium and recycling the same in self-sustaining closed fuel cycle in thermal breeder reactors.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, in a publication titled “Thorium fuel cycle ~ Potential benefits and challenges,” dated May 2005, says that research studies have shown that thorium-based fuels “do have several characteristics in the tight pitch lattice designs such as a more negative void coefficient, a high fuel conversion ratio, improved non-proliferation characteristics and a reduced production of long lived radio-toxic wastes than corresponding uranium based fuels.”
The Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) project of the US Department of Energy has developed an innovative fuel matrix consisting of thorium. Japan is pursuing research and design activities on innovative thorium-based hydride fuels for advanced Minor Actinides and plutonium burners with high-safety characteristics. Both countries are mopping up all available thorium from India. The high degree of chemical stability and low solubility of thorium make irradiated thorium-based fuels attractive as waste forms for direct geological disposal.
Therefore, conserving and protecting thorium reserves has the potential to catapult India as the world’s pre-eminent nuclear energy producer. India’s proven scientific talent in fast breeder reactors using thorium to breed plutonium with dual uses should form an integral part of the country’s nuclear doctrine rather than the country remaining a supplicant of the Nuclear Supplier Group.
(To be concluded)
The writer is a veteran journalist and former Director, Statesman Print Journalism School
http://thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=421905&catid=38
Great thorium robbery impacting India's nuclear doctrine and energy security: 20 blogposts: Ten-point strategic imperative. Fifteen-point plan of action.
How to cope with the Great Thorium Robbery? Two steps: 1. Ten-point stratetic policy imperative. 2. Fifteen-point plan of action.
Ten-point strategic policy imperative to cope with the Great Thorium Robbery:
These factors lead a policy imperative of declaring thorium reserves as the nation's strategic reserves. Such a policy will necessitate the following immediate steps to protect, and conserve the reserves.
1. Thorium-producing placer minerals [Monazite, Ilmenite, Rutile, Zircon, and mineral complexes such as thorite(ThSiO4), thorianite (ThO2 + UO2)] together with uranium minerals should be excluded from the purview of privatisation under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation Act, 1957) and Indian Atomic Energy Act 1948. These resources should be specified in the Central List of Part XI of the Indian Constitution. (See Heavy minerals of economic importance: ilmenite, leucoxene, rutile, zircon, monazite, xenotime, kyanite, sillimanite, andalusite, staurolite, garnet, chromite, magnetite, cassiterite, columbitetantalite, wolframite, scheelite)http://www.bgr.bund.de/DE/Themen/Min_rohstoffe/Downloads/heavy-minerals-economic-importance.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=5)
2. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation Act, 1957) should be amended for this purpose together with a mandate for setting up a Mines Regulatory Authority similar to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or Insurance Regulatory Authority of India. This is to ensure that any complex minerals which have the potential to produce thorium should be allowed to be mined and conserved with provisos for extraction and delivery of processed thorium to the agencies of Atomic Energy Commission.
3. Considering the strategic importance, the select areas with thorium minerals (e.g. Manavalakurichi, Aluva, Chavara, Orissa Sand Complex) should be declared as exclusive zones and brought under the security cover of India's Armed Forces (Joint Army, Navy and Air Force commands). Extraction, transport and storage of the minerals should be DIRECTLY under this Joint control of this Armed Forces Nuclear Command and Atomic Energy Commission. In short, the thorium reserves should be declared national assets NOT subject to privatisation laws.
4. The thorium resources extracted so far under the privitasion laws should be nationalised with immediate effect on the lines of the Bank Nationalisation Act and the resouces handed over as Nuclear Fuel Complex to the joint control of Armed Forces Nuclear Command and Atomic Energy Commission.
5. To ensure the protection of the fragile coastlines with these strategic place deposits mineral complexes, Environmental Protection Agencies of the Central and State Governments (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa) should be co-opted as members of the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency subject to regulations and discipline of the Armed Forces Command. This measure will ensure that further accumulations of the placer deposits are carefully monitored and the resources are so protected as to ensure the environmental safety of the coastline and the lives of the coastal people.
6. All trade, both internal and external in the thorium-producing placer mineral complexes should be banned and the entire thorium extracted should be brought under the control of the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency subject to regulations and discipline of the Armed Forces Command. CBI should investigate illegal mining of thorium resources and bring the culprits to book with expedition. Such illegal mining should be declared an act of treason and sever punishment meted out to the guilty persons engaging in the loot using corrupt practices, in violation of the laws of the land, subverting the integrity of Central and State institutions which are expected to safeguard the nation's interests and endangering the security of the nation.
7. The Mines Regulatory Authority should be empowered to monitor and control the end use of thorium produced from the minerals complexes only for the exclusive use and control of the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency.
8. Considering the strategic nature of the nuclear fuel, the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency, jointly with the Mines Regulatory Authority should be empowered to ensure the secrecy of the locations with continuing accumulations of placer deposits, and exercise control over the dissemination of information related to the nuclear fuel complexes yielding thorium. A separate unit of the Geological Survey of India should be entrusted with the responsibility of surveying and documenting the thorium-yielding mineral complex maps of the country, particularly all along the long 8000 km. coastline of the country.
9. Local communities constitute the first line of defence to ensure the protection and conservation of the strategic reserves. Local communities of the areas with the nuclear fuel complexes should be given the substantial share of the mining profits of the strategic mineral resource, as shareholders. The Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency should ensure that the distribution of such share is directly passed on to the Panchayati Raj Institutions of the nuclear fuel complex Panchayats.
10. To provide impetus to the indigenous research and development of thorium-blankets in fast-breeder reactors, a fast track R&D plan should be commissioned with the objective of providing for nuclear power generation to the extent of 50% of all electricity generation by the year 2050 and to promote the exports of the thorium-based nuclear power generation systems to other countries.
1. Thorium-producing placer minerals [Monazite, Ilmenite, Rutile, Zircon, and mineral complexes such as thorite(ThSiO4), thorianite (ThO2 + UO2)] together with uranium minerals should be excluded from the purview of privatisation under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation Act, 1957) and Indian Atomic Energy Act 1948. These resources should be specified in the Central List of Part XI of the Indian Constitution. (See Heavy minerals of economic importance: ilmenite, leucoxene, rutile, zircon, monazite, xenotime, kyanite, sillimanite, andalusite, staurolite, garnet, chromite, magnetite, cassiterite, columbitetantalite, wolframite, scheelite)http://www.bgr.bund.de/DE/Themen/Min_rohstoffe/Downloads/heavy-minerals-economic-importance.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=5)
2. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation Act, 1957) should be amended for this purpose together with a mandate for setting up a Mines Regulatory Authority similar to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or Insurance Regulatory Authority of India. This is to ensure that any complex minerals which have the potential to produce thorium should be allowed to be mined and conserved with provisos for extraction and delivery of processed thorium to the agencies of Atomic Energy Commission.
3. Considering the strategic importance, the select areas with thorium minerals (e.g. Manavalakurichi, Aluva, Chavara, Orissa Sand Complex) should be declared as exclusive zones and brought under the security cover of India's Armed Forces (Joint Army, Navy and Air Force commands). Extraction, transport and storage of the minerals should be DIRECTLY under this Joint control of this Armed Forces Nuclear Command and Atomic Energy Commission. In short, the thorium reserves should be declared national assets NOT subject to privatisation laws.
4. The thorium resources extracted so far under the privitasion laws should be nationalised with immediate effect on the lines of the Bank Nationalisation Act and the resouces handed over as Nuclear Fuel Complex to the joint control of Armed Forces Nuclear Command and Atomic Energy Commission.
5. To ensure the protection of the fragile coastlines with these strategic place deposits mineral complexes, Environmental Protection Agencies of the Central and State Governments (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa) should be co-opted as members of the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency subject to regulations and discipline of the Armed Forces Command. This measure will ensure that further accumulations of the placer deposits are carefully monitored and the resources are so protected as to ensure the environmental safety of the coastline and the lives of the coastal people.
6. All trade, both internal and external in the thorium-producing placer mineral complexes should be banned and the entire thorium extracted should be brought under the control of the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency subject to regulations and discipline of the Armed Forces Command. CBI should investigate illegal mining of thorium resources and bring the culprits to book with expedition. Such illegal mining should be declared an act of treason and sever punishment meted out to the guilty persons engaging in the loot using corrupt practices, in violation of the laws of the land, subverting the integrity of Central and State institutions which are expected to safeguard the nation's interests and endangering the security of the nation.
7. The Mines Regulatory Authority should be empowered to monitor and control the end use of thorium produced from the minerals complexes only for the exclusive use and control of the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency.
8. Considering the strategic nature of the nuclear fuel, the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency, jointly with the Mines Regulatory Authority should be empowered to ensure the secrecy of the locations with continuing accumulations of placer deposits, and exercise control over the dissemination of information related to the nuclear fuel complexes yielding thorium. A separate unit of the Geological Survey of India should be entrusted with the responsibility of surveying and documenting the thorium-yielding mineral complex maps of the country, particularly all along the long 8000 km. coastline of the country.
9. Local communities constitute the first line of defence to ensure the protection and conservation of the strategic reserves. Local communities of the areas with the nuclear fuel complexes should be given the substantial share of the mining profits of the strategic mineral resource, as shareholders. The Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency should ensure that the distribution of such share is directly passed on to the Panchayati Raj Institutions of the nuclear fuel complex Panchayats.
10. To provide impetus to the indigenous research and development of thorium-blankets in fast-breeder reactors, a fast track R&D plan should be commissioned with the objective of providing for nuclear power generation to the extent of 50% of all electricity generation by the year 2050 and to promote the exports of the thorium-based nuclear power generation systems to other countries.
Fifteen-point plan of action to cope with the Great Thorium Robbery:
The most vital mineral resource of thorium has been subject to loot because of the following failures of commission and omission:
1. Since thorium is a nuclear fuel, of strategic importance for India’s nuclear programme (for both nuclear-tipped missiles and nuclear energy generation) Licences for extraction of minerals (which contained thorium) should NOT have been granted under the Mines and Minerals [Development and Regulation] Act, 1957 for clearly identified areas in the Geological Survey of India Maps of the nation’s mineral resources showing thorium-containing complexes (including ilmenite, monazite, rutile, Orissa Sand Complex etc.) with varying percentages of thorium element content.
2. Licences have been granted without proper application of mind by authorities entrusted with the responsibility. For instance, allowing thousands of tones of minerals to be extracted within a small area of land, say, 1 acre or 1 hectre (a theoretical impossibility) unless deep mining upto 100 kms. Depths into the ground can be demonstrated.
3. Licences for transport and storage have been granted for large tonnage of minerals, disproportionate to the mineral yielding capacity of the area of land held in lease or ownership.
4. Vast areas of purambok (government) land have been leased at throw-away prices upto tens of hectares without any regard to avoiding monopoly trade practices and allowing such leases to be used as a cover to export illegally mined minerals from unlicensed areas.
5. False declarations (calling the exports coir ropes or wheat germs) for trading in minerals including exports to foreign agencies (e.g. through South Korea to PRC destinations).
6. Govt. of India orders including ilmenite and monazite as permitted categories for privatized mine leases and extraction by private parties without adequate controls to ensure that thorium included in such mineral extractions are deposited with Atomic Energy Commission.
7. Limited area of land allocated to Indian Rare Earths Limited to conserving and extraction of thorium-rich minerals from placer deposits of Aluva, Chavara, Manavalakuricchi, while allowing large areas of land to be exploited by private parties.
8. In violation of the Monopolies Trade Practices regulations, which are meant to prevent creation of monopolies, encouragement by Govt. agencies to favoured individuals or companies creating virtual monopolies in exploitation of critical mineral resources like ilmenite and monazite. No procedures ensuring transparency such as auctioning such resources were put in place in the absence of a Mines Regulatory Authority under the Mines and Minerals [Development and Regulation] Act, 1957. This is a lesson which should be learnt from the 2G scam and the Coalgate scams of indiscriminate allocation of valuable assets in what is referred to as promotion of crony capitalism.
9. Officials in the pay of private parties participating in and promoting illegal mining activities by a few select companies and individuals without pursuing vigilance cases against corrupt officials at all levels both in the State and Central Governments.
10. Practices of intimidation adopted by a few individuals and firms to harass small private mining companies in the area with thorium-containing mineral complexes (including garnet, zircon etc. complexes) by intimidation, false and fabricated court cases.
11. Documented instances of threats and inducements to officials by some private parties documented in official meetings such as those convened by Indian Bureau of Mines or meetings with Federations promoting interests of miners.
12. Creating an intolerable situation where the law and order machinery has virtually broken down with a few individuals running a private regime, a parallel government in selected areas with thorium-containing mineral resources and assets. Most of such areas are made inaccessible to even scientists and researchers.
13. The solution to a problem which has reached gigantic proportions of loot of the most valuable thorium reserves which are estimated to be about Rs. 1340 billion) has to be IMMEDIATE and DECISIVE: 1. Nationalise all thorium-containing resources held by private invidivuals/companies; 2. to prevent further loot, hand over the areas containing thorium-containing reserves to the control of a Separate Nuclear Fuels Command of the Joint Command of Army,Navy and Air Force as an integral part of the nation’s Nuclear Forces Command; and 3. to institute monitoring mechanisms for end-use of thorium for dual uses: one for thorium-blanked fast breeder reactors and second for development/deployment of plutonium based nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Doctrine of the Nation.
14. Indian Parliament should amend the Mines and Minerals [Development and Regulation] Act, 1957 to exlude thorium-containing mineral complexes from the application of the Act and declare such complexes as National Assets under the Central List of Part XI of Indian Constitution.
15. Immediate action to redress failure of Environmental Protection Agencies in continuous and effective monitoring the fragile coastal zones which are the depositories of the placer minerals such as the minerals containing thorium.
1. Since thorium is a nuclear fuel, of strategic importance for India’s nuclear programme (for both nuclear-tipped missiles and nuclear energy generation) Licences for extraction of minerals (which contained thorium) should NOT have been granted under the Mines and Minerals [Development and Regulation] Act, 1957 for clearly identified areas in the Geological Survey of India Maps of the nation’s mineral resources showing thorium-containing complexes (including ilmenite, monazite, rutile, Orissa Sand Complex etc.) with varying percentages of thorium element content.
2. Licences have been granted without proper application of mind by authorities entrusted with the responsibility. For instance, allowing thousands of tones of minerals to be extracted within a small area of land, say, 1 acre or 1 hectre (a theoretical impossibility) unless deep mining upto 100 kms. Depths into the ground can be demonstrated.
3. Licences for transport and storage have been granted for large tonnage of minerals, disproportionate to the mineral yielding capacity of the area of land held in lease or ownership.
4. Vast areas of purambok (government) land have been leased at throw-away prices upto tens of hectares without any regard to avoiding monopoly trade practices and allowing such leases to be used as a cover to export illegally mined minerals from unlicensed areas.
5. False declarations (calling the exports coir ropes or wheat germs) for trading in minerals including exports to foreign agencies (e.g. through South Korea to PRC destinations).
6. Govt. of India orders including ilmenite and monazite as permitted categories for privatized mine leases and extraction by private parties without adequate controls to ensure that thorium included in such mineral extractions are deposited with Atomic Energy Commission.
7. Limited area of land allocated to Indian Rare Earths Limited to conserving and extraction of thorium-rich minerals from placer deposits of Aluva, Chavara, Manavalakuricchi, while allowing large areas of land to be exploited by private parties.
8. In violation of the Monopolies Trade Practices regulations, which are meant to prevent creation of monopolies, encouragement by Govt. agencies to favoured individuals or companies creating virtual monopolies in exploitation of critical mineral resources like ilmenite and monazite. No procedures ensuring transparency such as auctioning such resources were put in place in the absence of a Mines Regulatory Authority under the Mines and Minerals [Development and Regulation] Act, 1957. This is a lesson which should be learnt from the 2G scam and the Coalgate scams of indiscriminate allocation of valuable assets in what is referred to as promotion of crony capitalism.
9. Officials in the pay of private parties participating in and promoting illegal mining activities by a few select companies and individuals without pursuing vigilance cases against corrupt officials at all levels both in the State and Central Governments.
10. Practices of intimidation adopted by a few individuals and firms to harass small private mining companies in the area with thorium-containing mineral complexes (including garnet, zircon etc. complexes) by intimidation, false and fabricated court cases.
11. Documented instances of threats and inducements to officials by some private parties documented in official meetings such as those convened by Indian Bureau of Mines or meetings with Federations promoting interests of miners.
12. Creating an intolerable situation where the law and order machinery has virtually broken down with a few individuals running a private regime, a parallel government in selected areas with thorium-containing mineral resources and assets. Most of such areas are made inaccessible to even scientists and researchers.
13. The solution to a problem which has reached gigantic proportions of loot of the most valuable thorium reserves which are estimated to be about Rs. 1340 billion) has to be IMMEDIATE and DECISIVE: 1. Nationalise all thorium-containing resources held by private invidivuals/companies; 2. to prevent further loot, hand over the areas containing thorium-containing reserves to the control of a Separate Nuclear Fuels Command of the Joint Command of Army,Navy and Air Force as an integral part of the nation’s Nuclear Forces Command; and 3. to institute monitoring mechanisms for end-use of thorium for dual uses: one for thorium-blanked fast breeder reactors and second for development/deployment of plutonium based nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Doctrine of the Nation.
14. Indian Parliament should amend the Mines and Minerals [Development and Regulation] Act, 1957 to exlude thorium-containing mineral complexes from the application of the Act and declare such complexes as National Assets under the Central List of Part XI of Indian Constitution.
15. Immediate action to redress failure of Environmental Protection Agencies in continuous and effective monitoring the fragile coastal zones which are the depositories of the placer minerals such as the minerals containing thorium.
Executive Summary: The National Strategic Imperative
Sand containing Monazite in Kerala Sea Beach, India. Thorium found abundantly in beach sands of Kerala and Orissa Deposits of 225,000 tonne of thorium approx. BARC website http://www.barc.ernet.in/reactor/tfc_thri.html
The following blogposts are a clarion call to the nation
-- to immediately arrange to protect the thorium reserves of India
-- to stop privatised mining of nuclear fuel complexes
-- to nationalise all mined nuclear fuel containing mineral complexes (such as Rutile, Zircon, Ilmenite, Monazite, Garnet, Sillimanite and other sand forms) with immediate effect by an Ordinance
-- to bring to book the parties involved in illegal mining of the sands/mineral complexes containing nuclear fuel
Conserving and protecting thorium reserves has the potential to catapult India as the world's pre-eminent Nuclear Power. The posts include documentary evidences including full texts of International Atomic Energy Agency and other Agencies' Reports re-affirming the pre-eminent position of India with one complex alone (Manavalakurichi) accounting for 30% of the world's reserves of thorium. India's proven scientific talent in Fast Breeder Reactors using thorium as breeding fuel (to breed Plutonium with dual uses) should be an integral part of India's Nuclear Doctrine and Plans for indigenous development of India's Energy Future based on the nuclear fuel.
The response of GOI has to be two-fold: 1. Strategic declaration of thorium as national asset and consequent decisions to nationalise thorium-containing reserves and stockpiles; 2. Tighterning bureaucratic procedures to safeguard the reserves of thorium-containing mineral complexes by instituting a Joint Armed Forces Nuclear Fuel Defence Command and a Minerals Regulatory Authority on the lines of Telecom Regulatory Authority and Insurance Regulatory Authority.
Kalyanaraman
Sand containing Monazite in Kerala Sea Beach, India. Thorium found abundantly in beach sands of Kerala and Orissa Deposits of 225,000 tonne of thorium approx. BARC website http://www.barc.ernet.in/reactor/tfc_thri.htmlThe following blogposts are a clarion call to the nation
-- to immediately arrange to protect the thorium reserves of India
-- to stop privatised mining of nuclear fuel complexes
-- to nationalise all mined nuclear fuel containing mineral complexes (such as Rutile, Zircon, Ilmenite, Monazite, Garnet, Sillimanite and other sand forms) with immediate effect by an Ordinance
-- to bring to book the parties involved in illegal mining of the sands/mineral complexes containing nuclear fuel
Conserving and protecting thorium reserves has the potential to catapult India as the world's pre-eminent Nuclear Power. The posts include documentary evidences including full texts of International Atomic Energy Agency and other Agencies' Reports re-affirming the pre-eminent position of India with one complex alone (Manavalakurichi) accounting for 30% of the world's reserves of thorium. India's proven scientific talent in Fast Breeder Reactors using thorium as breeding fuel (to breed Plutonium with dual uses) should be an integral part of India's Nuclear Doctrine and Plans for indigenous development of India's Energy Future based on the nuclear fuel.
The response of GOI has to be two-fold: 1. Strategic declaration of thorium as national asset and consequent decisions to nationalise thorium-containing reserves and stockpiles; 2. Tighterning bureaucratic procedures to safeguard the reserves of thorium-containing mineral complexes by instituting a Joint Armed Forces Nuclear Fuel Defence Command and a Minerals Regulatory Authority on the lines of Telecom Regulatory Authority and Insurance Regulatory Authority.
Kalyanaraman
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/15-billion-hole-in-ground-thorium-for.html 15billion hole in ground. Thorium for clean energy
Thorium Reserve in the Country - Narayanasamy informs Lok Sabha
Thorium-fuelled dreams for India's energy future. How India's science is taking over the world.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/nuclear-materials-suppliers-group-nsg.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/black-monazite-sand-deposits-found-on.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/thorium-fuel-cycle-potential-benefits.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/thorium-alleged-export-of-sands-august.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/key-reserve-profiles-of-placer-deposits.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/valmikis-knowledge-of-oceanography-and.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/mining-of-monazite-goi-response-in-lok.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/indian-rare-earths-limited.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2012/08/vv-mineral-achievements.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/theres-nuclear-gold-in-this-sand-and.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/manavalakurichi.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/irregularities-in-bureaucratic.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/10-point-plan-nationalise-thorium.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/illegal-thorium-mining-in-india-value.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/monday-august-13-2012-must-look-into.html
Vattakottai, an archeological site of Tamil Nadu state is in the south at about 1.1 km. from the mining site of Chandrakala Farms (of Azhagappapuram village, Agatheeswaram Taluk, Kanyakumari dist.) M/S VV Minerals are mining the rare minerals at nearby Kanakappapuram Village. (Section 1.4 of the Summary environmental impact assessment report, 2006 at: http://www.tnpcb.gov.in/pdf/chandra_eia_eng.pdf ) The proposal cleared was for manual mining of 15 tons/day over an extent of 2.135 ha.
Sand separating factory of VV Mineral at Kanakappapuram, Kanyakumari Dist.
The mining impasse
Both the Union government and Tamil Nadu's administration have permitted mining of sand from Tinnevelly and Kanyakumari coast, Tonnes of illmenite, garnet, rutile, silliminate and monosite sands have been removed. Many private companies like V V Minerals and Beach Minerals have also joined the bandwagon. The Union and state governments, along with the judiciary, want to aid the companies. Recently, Tinnevelly's assistant director of geology permitted one of the private companies to take 150,000 tonnes of illmenite sand from the Kanyakumari coast. Money and muscle power have sustained the mafia. It has erected sand separating factories in Kanakappapuram village (Kanyakumari district). All the private companies take much more than their allocated quantity and much more than the sustainable. [Source: Down to Earth, February 28, 2005] (A news letter of ENVIS centre on environmental problems of mining areas, Page 59)
Full text of the report in Down to Earth follows:
The mining impasse: Both the Union government and Tamil Nadu's administration have permitted mining of sand from Tinnevelly and Kanyakumari coast. Tonnes of illmenite, garnet, rutile, silliminate and monosite sands have been removed. Many private companies like V V Minerals and Beach Minerals have also joined the bandwagon. The Union and state governments, along with the judiciary, want to aid the companies. Recently, Tinnevelly's assistant director of geology permitted one of the private companies to take 150,000 tonnes of illmenite sand from the Kanyakumari coast. Money and muscle power have sustained the mafia. It has erected sand separating factories in Kanakappapuram village (Kanyakumari district). All the private companies take much more than their allocated quantity and much more than the sustainable amount. Ironically, the officials issue them a no objection certificate. Agencies of the Union government even issue a certificate of excellence to these private companies! They then use these certificates in courts to get bans on mining declared null and void.
Non-governmental organisations like the Nagercoil-based Conservation of Nature along with fisherfolk have launched a crusade against sand mining. But the government has not paid any heed. Result -- death and destruction due to disasters like tsunami. Had the sea sand been retained, the impact of tsunami would have been much less and many lives would have been saved. At least now the government should listen to environmentalists.
R S LAL MOHAN
Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu...
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/9191
Mineral unit raided near Kanyakumari
Staff Reporter 21 Aug. 2012
Nagercoil: A police team, led by the Superintendent of Police, B. Santhos Kumar, raided the V.V. Minerals factory belonging to Vaikundarajan at Kanakappapuram near Kanyakumari on Monday.
According to sources, the police conducted raid for more than four hours and seized important documents and compact discs. They also seized two machines meant for collecting rare earths in coastal areas. The police have registered a case and are further investigating.
http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/21/stories/2007082160590600.htm
Nuclear materials, suppliers group (NSG) and safeguards
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/black-monazite-sand-deposits-found-on.html
Black Monazite sand deposits found on beaches (India)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/thorium-fuel-cycle-potential-benefits.html
Thorium fuel cycle - potential benefits for India - IAEA publication (2005)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/thorium-alleged-export-of-sands-august.html
Thorium: alleged export of sands (August 2007 report)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/key-reserve-profiles-of-placer-deposits.html
Key reserve profiles of placer deposits: Chavara and Manavalakurichi (From Ph.D. thesis of Ajith G. Nair, 2001)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/valmikis-knowledge-of-oceanography-and.html
Valmiki's knowledge of oceanography and Mannar volcanics
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/mining-of-monazite-goi-response-in-lok.html
Mining of monazite (GOI response in Lok Sabha on 30 Nov. 2011)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/indian-rare-earths-limited.html
Indian Rare Earths Limited
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2012/08/vv-mineral-achievements.html
VV Mineral: achievements
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/theres-nuclear-gold-in-this-sand-and.html
There’s nuclear gold in this sand. And it’s being sent out with impunity - Tehelka
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/manavalakurichi.html
Manavalakurichi
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/irregularities-in-bureaucratic.html
Scam of the century involving Rs. 1340 billion thorium reserves. Irregularities in bureaucratic processes which led to encouragement of illegal mining of thorium
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/10-point-plan-nationalise-thorium.html
10-point plan: Nationalise thorium resources of India and institute strategic command for protecting and conserving Nuclear Fuel complexes
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/illegal-thorium-mining-in-india-value.html
Illegal thorium mining in India. Value of India’s thorium reserves: Rs. 1340 billion est.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/monday-august-13-2012-must-look-into.html
‘PM must look into illegal thorium mining’
Vattakottai, an archeological site of Tamil Nadu state is in the south at about 1.1 km. from the mining site of Chandrakala Farms (of Azhagappapuram village, Agatheeswaram Taluk, Kanyakumari dist.) M/S VV Minerals are mining the rare minerals at nearby Kanakappapuram Village. (Section 1.4 of the Summary environmental impact assessment report, 2006 at: http://www.tnpcb.gov.in/pdf/chandra_eia_eng.pdf ) The proposal cleared was for manual mining of 15 tons/day over an extent of 2.135 ha.
Sand separating factory of VV Mineral at Kanakappapuram, Kanyakumari Dist.
The mining impasse
Both the Union government and Tamil Nadu's administration have permitted mining of sand from Tinnevelly and Kanyakumari coast, Tonnes of illmenite, garnet, rutile, silliminate and monosite sands have been removed. Many private companies like V V Minerals and Beach Minerals have also joined the bandwagon. The Union and state governments, along with the judiciary, want to aid the companies. Recently, Tinnevelly's assistant director of geology permitted one of the private companies to take 150,000 tonnes of illmenite sand from the Kanyakumari coast. Money and muscle power have sustained the mafia. It has erected sand separating factories in Kanakappapuram village (Kanyakumari district). All the private companies take much more than their allocated quantity and much more than the sustainable. [Source: Down to Earth, February 28, 2005] (A news letter of ENVIS centre on environmental problems of mining areas, Page 59)
Full text of the report in Down to Earth follows:
The mining impasse: Both the Union government and Tamil Nadu's administration have permitted mining of sand from Tinnevelly and Kanyakumari coast. Tonnes of illmenite, garnet, rutile, silliminate and monosite sands have been removed. Many private companies like V V Minerals and Beach Minerals have also joined the bandwagon. The Union and state governments, along with the judiciary, want to aid the companies. Recently, Tinnevelly's assistant director of geology permitted one of the private companies to take 150,000 tonnes of illmenite sand from the Kanyakumari coast. Money and muscle power have sustained the mafia. It has erected sand separating factories in Kanakappapuram village (Kanyakumari district). All the private companies take much more than their allocated quantity and much more than the sustainable amount. Ironically, the officials issue them a no objection certificate. Agencies of the Union government even issue a certificate of excellence to these private companies! They then use these certificates in courts to get bans on mining declared null and void.
Non-governmental organisations like the Nagercoil-based Conservation of Nature along with fisherfolk have launched a crusade against sand mining. But the government has not paid any heed. Result -- death and destruction due to disasters like tsunami. Had the sea sand been retained, the impact of tsunami would have been much less and many lives would have been saved. At least now the government should listen to environmentalists.
R S LAL MOHAN
Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu...
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/9191
Mineral unit raided near Kanyakumari
Staff Reporter 21 Aug. 2012
Nagercoil: A police team, led by the Superintendent of Police, B. Santhos Kumar, raided the V.V. Minerals factory belonging to Vaikundarajan at Kanakappapuram near Kanyakumari on Monday.
According to sources, the police conducted raid for more than four hours and seized important documents and compact discs. They also seized two machines meant for collecting rare earths in coastal areas. The police have registered a case and are further investigating.
http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/21/stories/2007082160590600.htm
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