CHENNAI: India’s ambitious fast breeder nuclear programme has moved closer to producing electricity, with Atomic Energy Commission chairman and Department of Atomic Energy secretary Ajit Kumar Mohanty reviewing the final technical work needed before the 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam is synchronised with the power grid.
The visit by Mohanty comes 11 weeks after the reactor achieved first criticality, the controlled start of a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, marking its transition from a decades-long construction project to the commissioning phase.
The turbine generator converts thermal energy produced by the reactor into electricity. In PFBR, superheated steam generated by sodium-heated passed through steam generators drives a tandem-compound turbine comprising separate high, intermediate and low-pressure cylinders. Once commissioned, the reactor will generate 500 MW of electricity.
The ongoing low-power physics experiments, a series of tests conducted after first criticality to validate reactor behaviour before power is gradually increased, was also reviewed.
PFBR represents the part of India’s second-stage nuclear programme, which seeks to use fast breeder technology to produce more fissile material than the reactor consumes. The approach lays the foundation for the eventual use of India’s abundant thorium reserves under the three-stage nuclear strategy conceived by physicist Homi Bhabha.
Unlike conventional reactors, fast breeder reactors generate electricity and also create additional nuclear fuel.