NEW DELHI: India’s first prototype fast-breeder reactor in Tamil Nadu’s Kalpakkam is expected to be commissioned next year, nearly two years after it got the go-ahead from the nuclear regulator, officials have said.The commissioning of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) will mark the second stage of India’s three-stage nuclear programme that aims to recycle spent fuel to reduce the inventory of radioactive waste.The PFBR being developed in Kalpakkam is the first-of-its-kind nuclear reactor to use plutonium-based mixed oxide as fuel and liquid sodium as coolant.It will also utilise the spent fuel of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors, which form the mainstay of nuclear power in India at present.While the state-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) operates nuclear power plants in the country, the PFBR in Kalpakkam is being developed by the Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam (BHAVINI).”BHAVINI’s 500 MW PFBR is in the advanced stage of integrated commissioning, with expected first criticality by 2025-26,” Department of Atomic Energy officials recently told the parliamentary standing 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 the plant would be completed by September 2026.Prime Minister Narendra Modi witnessed the commencement of core loading in the nuclear reactor in March last year.
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