The status of nuclear power development in India

Considering the energy resource profile in the country, Homi Bhabha underscored the need for the development of atomic energy, advocated the pursuit of a closed fuel cycle and selected the reactor system to be adopted by India for large-scale deployment. Following the vision outlined by him, India selected pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs) of smaller capacity (i.e. 220 MW plants) for large-scale commercial deployment of nuclear energy. Over time, the country developed expertise in this technology with the construction of several 220 MW plants and then raised the capacity to 540 MW. This experience, expertise and indigenization have led to the development of a state-of-the-art 700 MW PHWR, and India is now set to install several such reactors along with light water reactors in technical collaboration with foreign vendors, to increase the nuclear-installed base in the country. Technologies to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and manage high-level waste have also been developed and deployed. This article presents a brief outline of the present status of nuclear power development in India.