Once operational, it will recycle fuel spent from the pressurized heavy water reactors of India (PHWR), significantly reducing radioactive waste and allowing change to thorium -based reactors in the third stage of the nuclear cycle. | Photo credit: SS Kumar
It is expected that the first prototype reactor of India in Kalpakkam de Tamil Nadu will be in charge of next year, almost two years after the approval of the nuclear regulator occurs, authorities said.
The implementation of the Fast Breeding Reactor Prototype (PFBR) will mark the second stage of the Tres Stage Nuclear Program of India that aims to recycle fuel to reduce the inventory of radioactive waste.
The PFBR that is being developed in Kalpakkam is the first nuclear reactor of its type to use mixed oxide based on plutonium as fuel and liquid sodium as a refrigerant. It will also use the fuel spent on pressurized heavy water reactors, which form the pillar of nuclear energy in India today.
While the Indian State Nuclear Energy Corporation Limited (NPCIL) operates nuclear centrals in the country, the Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam is developing the PFBR in Kalpakkam.
“The 500 MW PFBR of Bhavini is in the advanced stage of the integrated start-up, with the first expected criticality for 2025-26,” said recently officials of the Atomic Energy Department to the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology.
They had told the committee that the first criticality of the PFBR was expected to be achieved in March and that the plant would be completed in September 2026.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi witnessed the beginning of the central load in the nuclear reactor in March last year.
Last July, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) granted permission for fuel loading, the first approach to criticality and the performance of low -power physics experiments for the PFBR.
The PFBR are critical for the nuclear program of India, since the fuel spent from these reactors will be used to feed the thorium -based reactors that form the third stage of the closed fuel cycle.
The Government has announced a nuclear energy mission that aims to produce electricity of 100 GW through nuclear energy.
At present, the nuclear energy capacity of India is 8.18 GW. Additional nuclear energy projects of 7.30 GW are under construction or in service and 7,00 GW have been sanctioned and are currently experiencing activities prior to the project.
At the end of these projects, India’s nuclear energy capacity is expected to reach 22.48 GW by 2031-32.
Beyond this, NPCil plans to add another 15.40 GW through indigenous pressurized heavy water reactors and 17.60 GW through light water reactors with strange cooperation, which carries the total installed capacity to 55 GW.
In addition, Bhavini is expected to contribute with 3.80 GW through fast breeding reactors, while the rest of the capacity will come from small modular reactors, small Bharat reactors and other advanced nuclear technologies developed with private collaboration.
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Posted on April 19, 2025