India will ‘commission a nuclear power reactor every year’: NPCIL chief
In 2024, another unit with the same capacity is expected to be commissioned in Rawatbhata, Rajasthan. Behind all these reactors is the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) of India. Its chairman and managing director B.C. Pathak told that NPCIL plans to “commission a nuclear power reactor every year”.
On December 17, 2023, India’s largest indigenously developed 700-MWe pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) – the fourth unit in Kakrapar, Gujarat – attained criticality. Six months earlier, another 700-MWe unit in the same facility had started producing commercial electricity. In 2024, another unit with the same capacity is expected to be commissioned in Rawatbhata, Rajasthan.
Know who is NPCIL Chairman
Mr. Pathak is a Distinguished Scientist of the Department of Atomic Energy and has more than 30 years of experience implementing the NPCIL’s nuclear power projects, including 220-MWe, 540-MWe, 700-MWe and 1,000-MWe reactors of both PHWR and pressurised water reactor (PWR) technologies. He assumed his current charge in NPCIL in February 2022.
Nuclear Power in India
India has a largely indigenous nuclear power programme.The Indian government is committed to growing its nuclear power capacity as part of its massive infrastructure development programme.The government has set ambitious targets to grow nuclear capacity.Because India is outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty due to its weapons programme, it was for 34 years largely excluded from trade in nuclear plant and materials, which hampered its development of civil nuclear energy until 2009.
Due to earlier trade bans and lack of indigenous uranium, India has uniquely been developing a nuclear fuel cycle to exploit its reserves of thorium.
Since 2010, a fundamental incompatibility between India’s civil liability law and international conventions limits foreign technology provision.
In November 2022, India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change issued a revised long-term low-carbon development strategy, including aims to triple nuclear power capacity by 2032.