25 years of Kalpakkam

What is Kalpakkam?

Madras Atomic Power Station located at Kalpakkam about 80 km south of Chennai, India, is a comprehensive nuclear power production, fuel reprocessing, and waste treatment facility that includes plutonium fuel fabrication for fast breeder reactors (FBRs). It is also India's first fully indegenously constructed nuclear power station

What is a fast breeder reactor?

A fast breeder reactor is one which breeds more material for a nuclear fission reaction than it consumes and is key to India’s three-stage nuclear power programme.

Why is it in news?

It celebrated 25 years of operations on Sunday (10th Oct), and even at 25 the 13MW fast breeder test reactor (FBTR) in Kalpakkam is still going strong and is expected to serve as the test bed for new technologies developed by Indian scientists for a decade more, an official said.

Why is it important?

FBTR is one of the six fast reactors currently operating in the world. It was set up mainly to enable Indian nuclear scientists to design and develop a commercial sized fast reactor.