Vienna, Sep 21 (IANS) Noting that India had developed advanced technological capabilities in the nuclear energy field, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hopes this would be enhanced through the cooperation that was emerging with the international community.

"I am glad that the emerging possibility for expanding civil nuclear cooperation between India and the international community would supplement and complement our domestic efforts to meet the developmental aspirations of our people through additional nuclear energy inputs," the prime minister said in a message to the 50th general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) here.

"We look forward to cooperating with international partners in realizing this possibility," the message, read out by Anil Kakodkar, chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), added.

"Nuclear energy being unique in its ability to regenerate more fuel from uranium and thorium several ten-folds while producing energy, offers us the possibility of meeting global energy requirements in a non-polluting and sustainable manner," Manmohan Singh said.

"However, if we are to be successful in realizing the potential of the atom in meeting our needs, we need to act in concert consistent with the spirit of global harmony and adhering to our respective international commitments," he added.

With India having a strong interest in utilizing the full potential of atomic energy for national development, the prime minister expressed confidence "this will be realized, based on our natural endowment of vast thorium resources and the development of effective technologies for their utilization".

Kakodkar developed on the theme during his address to the conference, holding that India considered the closed nuclear fuel cycle "of crucial importance for implementation of its three stage nuclear power programme" that had as its long-term objective the tapping of India's thorium resources.

"This is central to India's vision of energy security and the government is committed to its full realisation through development and deployment of technologies pertaining to all aspects of a closed nuclear fuel cycle," he maintained.

Over the years, Kakodkar said, India had developed advanced capabilities in the utilization of thorium "as a part of its strategy to enhance nuclear capacity through a closed nuclear fuel cycle that would enable timely deployment of its thorium reserves.

"We are convinced that this is a viable and sustainable strategy for India's and global long-term energy security," Kakodkar added.

In this context, he noted that the construction of a 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) was on schedule and was expected to be commissioned by 2010.

"In keeping with our philosophy of efficient utilization of a fuel material by closing the fuel cycle, we have embarked on the design and construction of a fuel cycle facility to cater to the PFBR. The facility will be commissioned by 2012," Kakodkar said.

Simultaneous with the construction of the PFBR, India had also initiated programmes towards conceptualising FBRs to follow, "with the objective of further enhancing the fuel performance as well as making the energy production more economical.

"To ensure rapid growth in the fast reactor programme for meeting the energy needs in the country, we have already embarked on R&D programmes targeting towards the introduction of metallic fuel in fast reactors, which would provide much higher breeding," he added.

Kakodkar also spoke of the "excellent safety record" of Indian reactors and other facilities that had "been achieved through sustained Research and Development programmes.

"As part of the safety studies on nuclear containment structures, the construction of a 1:4 size containment test model has been initiated at Tarapur. The ultimate load capacity of the containment would be studied on this test model and the experimental results would be available to the participants of a round robin exercise, which is being organized by us," Kakodkar pointed out.