India has an active development program featuring both fast and thermal breeder reactors.
India%u2019s first 40 MWt Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) attained criticality on 18th October 1985. Thus, India became the sixth nation to have the technology to build and operate a FBTR after US, UK, France, Japan and the former USSR. India has developed the technology to produce the plutonium rich U-Pu mixed carbide fuel. This can be used in the Fast Breeder Reactor.
At present the scientists of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), one of the nuclear R & D institutions of India, are engaged in the construction of another FBR - the 500 MWe prototype fast breeder reactor - at Kalpakkam, near Chennai.
India has the capability to use Thorium Cycle based processes to extract nuclear fuel. This is of special significance to the Indian nuclear power generation strategy as India has large reserves of thorium %u2014 about 360,000 tonnes %u2014 that can fuel nuclear projects for an estimated 2,500 years. But the hitch is with the expensive nature of the construction of Fast Breeder Reactor in comparison with the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) in use. This is one of the main reasons why India is looking at the cheaper option - Uranium fuel.
