India’s 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) project, begun in 2004 and originally expected to be completed by 2011, is “expected to be operational by the end of 2025,” Dr Jitendra Singh, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Office told the Upper House of the Parliament last week. The PMO has oversight of the Department of Atomic Energy. 

“On completion of the commissioning of Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), the project will generate 500 MW of electricity,” he said, in reply to a question raised by members of parliament, Vijay Baghel and Shankar Lalwani. (Usually, generation is given in MWhr or million units, and only the capacity is given in MW.) 

On March 4, 2024, Prime Minister Modi witnessed the “core loading” operation, a precursor to the nuclear plant going “critical” (meaning, the beginning of the chain reaction). A government press release then said that core loading (loading of fuel into the rods that form the core of the reactor) was “a historic milestone marking entry into the vital second stage of India’s three stage nuclear program.” India’s 3-stage nuclear program, which would run sequentially, was first put out by Dr Homi Bhabha, the father of India’s nuclear energy program, in 1954 and adopted by the government of India in 1958.  The second stage would pave the way for India using its abundant thorium resources. 

The Atomic Energy Commission has not replied to repeated requests by businessline for reasons for the delay in the PFBR project. 

Nuclear capacity addition 

Further, there are varied numbers about the planned nuclear power capacity. Answering a Rajya Sabha on April 28, 2016, Jitendra Singh said that the government would have a nuclear power capacity of 63,000 MW by 2032. 

On August 8, 2024, replying to another question in the upper house, Singh said that India’s nuclear capacity was expected to be 22,480 MW by 2031-32 — implying a massive scale-down of the expected capacity addition.  

More recently, in replying to yet another question in the Lok Sabha on December 4, 2024, Singh put the expected nuclear capacity at 14,080 MW for the year 2029-30. This would mean that between 2029-30 and 2031-32, India would add 6,400 MW of capacity.