India's Nuclear Breakthrough: Fast Breeder Reactor Achieves Criticality in Tamil Nadu

"This nuclear breakthrough will go a long way in making India self-sufficient amidst highly volatile situation in the West Asia and will also strengthen India's indigenous capability given its corresponding thrust in the Budget 2025-26," a leading portal Business Report said.

In the 2025-26 budget, the Centre had announced Nuclear Energy Mission setting a goal of achieving 100 GW of nuclear power generation capacity by 2047.

The milestone in civil nuclear programme, achieved after two decades of painstaking hard work, puts the country at the cusp of generating its own nuclear energy.

This also marked the second stage of India's three-stage nuclear power program, conceived by Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha and will soon position India into select league of nations.

The second stage criticality means the fast-breeder reactor will produce more fuel that it consumes, taking the country closer to its goal of long-term energy security.

The portal says that the fast-breeder reactors at Kalpakkam will now be used to breed Uranium-233 from thorium, thus laying the groundwork for Stage 3, where the nuclear reactors will be able to use India's vast thorium reserves at scale, using the Uranium-233 bred in Stage 2 as fuel.

"Since thorium is a near limitless source of energy, which can potentially power India for 400 years, the last phase of its nuclear programme holds the key to the country's long-term energy security," it said.

At present, the country's nuclear capacity stands at 8.78 Gigawatt (GW), with nuclear power accounting for nearly three per cent of its total electricity generation.

According to the portal, sustained and dedicated efforts are underway to scale the production to more than 22 GW in the next four to five years, with international co-operation.

"By advancing towards energy self-sufficiency through clean and reliable nuclear power, the country is not only insulating itself against external shocks but also laying the groundwork for sustained economic growth," it said.

- IANS