New Delhi, Apr 7 (PTI) With India’s first indigenous prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu attaining criticality on Monday, experts said the development is a significant boost to the country’s three-stage nuclear programme.
Formulated in the 1950s by Dr Homi Bhabha, the programme seeks to make India self-reliant in the nuclear power sector by exploiting the vast thorium reserves found in the monazite sands of the coastal regions of south India.
Talking to PTI, Debasish Mishra, partner at Deloitte India, said, “The PFBR reaching criticality is a seminal moment in India’s technical progress toward nuclear self-reliance.” Attaining criticality means that the nuclear reaction in the reactor has become self-sustaining and will eventually lead to the generation of electricity.
The programme’s first stage comprises setting up indigenous, natural uranium-fuelled pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs). Currently, there are 18 to 20 such reactors in the country and these form the backbone of the nuclear power programme.
The second stage involves developing indigenous FBRs fuelled by plutonium and uranium recovered by reprocessing the first-stage spent fuel.
FBR is a type of nuclear reactor that can convert fertile, or non-fissile, material, such as uranium-238, into fissile material like plutonium-239.
E A S Sarma, former secretary with the Ministry of Power, told PTI, “Unlike conventional thermal reactors (such as PHWRs), the PFBR uses a uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. The core of the PFBR is surrounded by a blanket of uranium-238 and fast neutrons convert that fertile uranium-238 into fissile plutonium-239.” This enables the reactor to produce more fuel than it consumes. That is why the FBR is called a “breeder” reactor.
The PFBR is designed in such a way that it would be able to use thorium-232 in the blanket and convert it into fissile uranium-233, which will fuel the third stage of the nuclear power programme and generate electricity.
Thorium itself is not a fissile material and thus, cannot undergo fission to produce energy. As a result, thorium-232 has to be converted into uranium-233 through transmutation.
“India has ample thorium reserves — 25 per cent of the world’s thorium is found here. Reaching the third stage of the nuclear programme is the ultimate panacea for India’s energy security as envisaged by Dr Bhabha,” Mishra said.
Despite the latest achievement for India’s nuclear programme, some concerns continue to persist, according to Sarma.
The former bureaucrat cautioned against shifting focus towards importing light water reactors (LWRs), which use enriched uranium as fuel and are a mainstay of the global nuclear programme.
“The original goal was a self-reliant programme based on indigenous resources, moving from heavy water reactors to the fast breeder route to access thorium. Now, there is a deluge of these new LWRs from the West. They are an entirely different technology based on uranium fuel that must be imported from abroad. It looks as though we are working at cross purposes,” Sarma said.
The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025, which was passed by Parliament in December last year, opened the possibility of more imported LWR-based nuclear projects of the kind being set up by the Russians in Kudankulam.
This was done by addressing several liability concerns of nuclear equipment vendors through the new law.
Mishra said, “There are two issues with LWRs. First, they are expensive. The cost is in excess of Rs 40 crore per megawatt. Second, suppliers have always had concerns around liability. While the government has addressed liability issues with the SHANTI Act, commerciality still needs to be addressed.” PTI ALC RC
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