ravinderjeet
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Here is an another article about how Thorium could have powered India.
More than 2,00,000 tonnes of precious thorium oxide, which could have met at least half the energy requirements of the country for more than 50 years, is missing from India.
During the period 2002 to 2012, the quantity of monazite present along the Indian coastline has come down by more than 2.1 million tonnes. This monazite, quite rich in thorium, is reported to have been mostly exported to other countries by a powerful mining cartel.
On November 30, 2011,V Narayanasamy, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), told the Lok Sabha that Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL), a public sector undertaking under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), is the only company exporting monazite.
“Beach sands contain heavy minerals such as ilmenite, rutile,leucoxene, garnet, sillimanite, zircon and monazite (which is radioactive and a source of thorium). Ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene, garnet, sillimanite and zircon are separated from beach sands and these individual heavy minerals — free of monazite — are being exported.
As per the latest notification of the Department of Atomic Energy vide ref. S.O.61(E) dated January 20, 2006, these heavy minerals are delisted from the prescribed substances list and hence, for the handling of these minerals, licence from Department of Atomic Energy under the Atomic Energy (Working of the Mines, Minerals and Handling of Prescribed Substance) Rules, 1984 is not required,” said the Minister.
The Minister also said that consequent to delisting of ilmenite, rutile, zircon etc. from the list of prescribed substances, no licences or permission is required from DAE for these substances.
“However, under the guidelines framed by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), individual processors of beach sand have to separate and safely keep the monazite content of such sand. No individual or entity is permitted to process monazite in any manner without a licence from DAE. Further, no licences have been given to any private party to process monazite and separate thorium,” said the Minister.
But the Minister did not tell whether companies keep the sand containing monazite with them after they have processed and extracted other minerals from the sand. Scientists and engineers said they were in the dark about the quantity of monazite extracted by private companies and whether it has been exported or not.
Prof KT Damodaran, marine geologist and former director, School of Marine Geology and Geophysics, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), said that no proper accounting has been done on the amount of monazite generated and what happened to it.
Scientists disagree with the Minister. “Heavy mineral deposits often contain relatively high levels of radioactive elements (thorium and uranium). It is difficult to obtain clean separation of ilmenite and monazite and physical intergrowths of the two minerals are not uncommon. As a result, ilmenite concentrates obtained from such deposits often contain high levels of thorium and uranium,” writes J Nell, mineral scientist, in a research paper.------------cond.
More than 2,00,000 tonnes of precious thorium oxide, which could have met at least half the energy requirements of the country for more than 50 years, is missing from India.
During the period 2002 to 2012, the quantity of monazite present along the Indian coastline has come down by more than 2.1 million tonnes. This monazite, quite rich in thorium, is reported to have been mostly exported to other countries by a powerful mining cartel.
On November 30, 2011,V Narayanasamy, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), told the Lok Sabha that Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL), a public sector undertaking under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), is the only company exporting monazite.
“Beach sands contain heavy minerals such as ilmenite, rutile,leucoxene, garnet, sillimanite, zircon and monazite (which is radioactive and a source of thorium). Ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene, garnet, sillimanite and zircon are separated from beach sands and these individual heavy minerals — free of monazite — are being exported.
As per the latest notification of the Department of Atomic Energy vide ref. S.O.61(E) dated January 20, 2006, these heavy minerals are delisted from the prescribed substances list and hence, for the handling of these minerals, licence from Department of Atomic Energy under the Atomic Energy (Working of the Mines, Minerals and Handling of Prescribed Substance) Rules, 1984 is not required,” said the Minister.
The Minister also said that consequent to delisting of ilmenite, rutile, zircon etc. from the list of prescribed substances, no licences or permission is required from DAE for these substances.
“However, under the guidelines framed by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), individual processors of beach sand have to separate and safely keep the monazite content of such sand. No individual or entity is permitted to process monazite in any manner without a licence from DAE. Further, no licences have been given to any private party to process monazite and separate thorium,” said the Minister.
But the Minister did not tell whether companies keep the sand containing monazite with them after they have processed and extracted other minerals from the sand. Scientists and engineers said they were in the dark about the quantity of monazite extracted by private companies and whether it has been exported or not.
Prof KT Damodaran, marine geologist and former director, School of Marine Geology and Geophysics, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), said that no proper accounting has been done on the amount of monazite generated and what happened to it.
Scientists disagree with the Minister. “Heavy mineral deposits often contain relatively high levels of radioactive elements (thorium and uranium). It is difficult to obtain clean separation of ilmenite and monazite and physical intergrowths of the two minerals are not uncommon. As a result, ilmenite concentrates obtained from such deposits often contain high levels of thorium and uranium,” writes J Nell, mineral scientist, in a research paper.------------cond.