India’s big leap In fast breeder nuclear reactors
While several countries have developed or operated experimental fast reactors, specifically the USA, the UK, France, Japan, Germany and China, most of these programmes are currently shut down
On 6 April, India's indigenously developed 500 MWe nuclear Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at a power plant in Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu successfully attained first criticality.
What it means in simple terms is that the nuclear reaction in the reactor has become safely self-sustaining and is on its way to generating electricity.
There are two key takeaways from the feat: one, it puts India in the second stage of its three-stage nuclear power programme conceived in the 1950s by Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the father of the country's nuclear programme.
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Second, once fully operational, India will become only the second country after Russia to operate a commercial fast breeder reactor.
The Kalpakkam power project was formally approved in 2003 and it took 23 years to reach the second stage.
While several countries have developed or operated experimental fast reactors, specifically the USA, the UK, France, Japan, Germany and China, most of these programmes are currently shut down.
Fast breeder technology forms the vital link between India's current fleet of pressurised heavy water reactors, heavily dependent on imported enriched uranium, and the future deployment of thorium-based reactors, leveraging the country's abundant thorium resources for long-term clean energy generation. Nuclear power contributes about % of India's electricity from 8.78 gigawatts of installed capacity.
It will take some months before the PFBR at Kalpakkam produces electricity and reaches full capacity for commercial use. A number of experiments need to be conducted at low power, which have to be evaluated by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) for its go-ahead for commercial power operation.
India's three-stage atomic power programme envisages becoming independent of imports and achieving energy security through the use of thorium, of which the country has vast reserves. This is where the PFBR technology plays the role of a bridge between the current fleet of pressurised heavy water reactors using enriched uranium and the future deployment of thorium-based reactors for long-term clean energy generation targets.
India has a fleet of 18–20 pressurised heavy water reactors that use natural uranium as fuel and produce plutonium-239 (Pu-239) as a by-product in spent fuel, which has civilian as well as defence applications.
India's present installed nuclear power capacity is 8780 MW and the nuclear electricity generated during 2024–25 is 56681 million units, according to data from the Atomic Energy Department. In 2024–25, the share of nuclear power was about 3.1% in India's total electricity generation.
