The AHWR represents the ultimate third phaser of the three phase Indian nuclear plan for a thorium breeder nuclear economy. In the first phase conventional Light and heavy water reactors will burn uranium based fuel. Once the fuel will no longer sustain a chain reaction, it will be removed from the reactor and processed to separate plutonium from other materials. The Plutonium then is rase to fuel fast breeder reactors. The fast breeders produce more plutonium but also breed thorium, producing U-233. The U-233 is then used to fuel the start up AHWRs which are also thorium Breeders. Once Indian AHWRs start operating, they will produce their own fuel. India has very little uranium and a lot of thorium, so the plan to base the Indian nuclear future on the thorium fuel cycle is sound.

The AHWR is a very technologically advanced small (300 MWe) reactor that would not cost a poor country an arm and a leg to buy, and would is designed to operate outside a highly developed grid. There is a market for such reactorsa outside India, and indeed potentially a very large market, provided the reactor uses low enrichment uranium. At present the Indians are beginning to seek customers for their present generation of small PHWRs, that are low enrichment uranium burners. There would undoubtedly be a marker for a AHWR with its sophisticated safety features, were that reactor adapted for uranium fuel. The Indian Atomic Energy Commission, has recently announced that it will be designing and building a low enriched uranium version of the AHWR. Chairman Anil Kakodkar of the IAEC stated,
"A new version of AHWR named Advanced Heavy Water Reactor-Low Enriched Uranium (AHWR-LEU) that uses low enriched uranium along with thorium as fuel has been designed recently."
Kakodkar added,
"This version can also meet the requirement of medium sized reactors in countries with small grids while meeting the requirements of next generation systems,"
This announcement is another step indicating that Indian plans for atomic energy are now becoming very ambitious. This week Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, announced at a conference of devoted to nuclear energy, that the indian state was setting a goal of a generating capacity of 470,000 MWs of nuclear generating capacity by 2050. This very ambitious goal represents a hundred fold expansion of nuclear generating capacity over the next 40 years.

The ambitious Indian plan would require factory manufacture of reactor modules if not entire reactors. Automated factory production would lower nuclear costs, allowing India to become a low cost nuclear supplier to under developed countries. The quality of Indian AHWR technology is good enough to find AHWR customers world wide including in Europe and North America.