CHENNAI, MAR 4   :   Marking a historic milestone in India’s nuclear power programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi witnessed the initiation of core loading of India’s 500 MW indigenous Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) being built by BHAVINI (Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited) at Kalpakkam, about 70 km from here, on Monday.

Mr Modi arrived in Chennai later reached Kalpakkam by a chopper and visited the PFBR facility.

Official sources said the PFBR reactor core consists of control sub-assemblies, blanket sub-assemblies and fuel sub-assemblies.

The core loading activity consists of loading of reactor control sub-assemblies, followed by the blanket sub-assemblies and the Fuel sub-assemblies which will generate power.

India has adopted a three-stage nuclear power program with a closed fuel cycle. In the PFBR, marking the second stage of the nuclear program, spent fuel from the first stage is reprocessed and used as fuel in FBR.

An unique feature of this sodium cooled PFBR is that it can produce more fuel than it consumes, thus helping in achieving self-reliance in fuel supply for future fast reactors.

With minimised nuclear waste generated from the reactor and advanced safety features, FBRs
will provide safe, efficient and clean source of energy and contribute to the goal of net zero.

This is an important step for India towards thorium utilisation in the third stage of the nuclear power programme. Once commissioned, India will be the second country after Russia to have commercial operating Fast Reactor.

In India’s three stages of Nuclear power programme, BHAVINI paves way as a forerunner in second stage by building a 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam. It is entrusted with a mandate to construct, commission and operate the Fast Breeder Reactors to provide energy security for the nation in a long run.

PFBR is constructed indigenously with the involvement of major Indian industries and sustained power operation of this reactor will be a feather in the cap in line with the nation’s ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ campaign.

This will also pave way for the future growth of BHAVINI with the plan of constructing two more FBRs, in the adjoining site of PFBR at Kalpakkam and a fleet of future FBRs in other probable sites.

After erection and integration of all the systems both in Nuclear Island and Power Island, fine tuning of the individual systems are completed. All the Fuel Handling systems are commissioned and integrated testing is in progress.

On completion of all the pre-requisite activities and after obtaining regulatory clearance, Sodium filling in Main Vessel was commenced on August 10, 2023 and filling completed successfully by the early hours of August 15, 2023. All the activities involved during the preheating and filling process were carried out with surgical precision taking all the safety precautions by qualified operators and have set a bench mark.

Purification of the filled sodium along with Commissioning of Primary Sodium Pumps is completed. The secondary sodium loops are filled and secondary sodium pumps are re-commissioned. All the four SGDHR loops are filled with sodium and commissioned. Currently, isothermal testing at 400 deg C is also completed and all the pre-checks prior to start of Fuel loading are under progress. This will be followed by obtaining regulatory clearance for start of Fuel loading towards First Approach to Criticality and further power operations.

BHAVINI is marching ahead in its activities with the sustained support from all the units of Department of Atomic Energy and other stakeholders.(UNI)