States » SouthPosted at: Dec 11 2025 8:58AM


Fuel loading underway at India’s first 500 MW fast breeder reactor

Chennai, Dec 11 (UNI) Thirty-seven sub-assemblies, including 28 fuel sub-assemblies, are currently being loaded into India’s first 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam, the government said, marking a critical step towards achieving the reactor’s first approach to criticality.
The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has granted permission for Initial Fuel Loading (IFL) into the reactor core, First Approach to Criticality (FAC) and Low Power Physics Experiments (LPPE) for PFBR on 16.10.2025. A total of 181 fuel assemblies have to be loaded into the PFBR’s reactor. It is learnt the fuel loading will take about three or four months to be completed and in between the approach to criticality will be done.
The fuel loading began in October 2025, through an alternate route as the originally designed inclined fuel transfer machine (IFTM) had encountered some technical issues, sources in the Indian nuclear power sector had said earlier. The alternate system or the `direct machine’ system is a well proven system and is being followed in the existing pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR), it is learnt. The future fast breeder reactors will have the `direct machine’ system which is simple, the source had said. Two more 500 MW fast breeder reactors are being planned at Kalpakkam.
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