Overview
- The 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam achieved first criticality on April 6, marking the reactor’s first self‑sustaining chain reaction.
- In Parliament, Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan praised the achievement as a national effort and noted the reactor was designed by IGCAR and built by BHAVINI using domestic know‑how.
- Operators have begun a low‑power commissioning phase that involves months of physics checks and systems tests before any rise in output or regulatory clearance for commercial operation.
- The plant runs on uranium–plutonium mixed‑oxide fuel with a uranium‑238 blanket that breeds new plutonium, and it uses liquid sodium coolant that moves heat well but reacts with air and water.
- Engineers expect the result to guide plans for more breeder units and supporting fuel‑cycle facilities, even as India weighs program costs, safety lessons from past sodium leaks abroad, and goals to expand nuclear power by mid‑century.