A reactor that makes more fuel than it burns has just come to life at Kalpakkam on India’s southeastern coast, and it could help reshape the country’s energy future
Six decades after physicist Homi Bhabha sketched out an audacious three-stage nuclear roadmap for a newly independent India, the country has quietly crossed the threshold into Stage II. Not with fanfare, but with a controlled, self-sustaining reaction igniting inside a reactor on the Tamil Nadu coast.
On April 6, 2026, India’s Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam attained criticality, the point at which a nuclear reactor sustains a continuous chain reaction on its own, a defining step in the country’s civil nuclear journey.
On April 6, 2026, India’s Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam attained criticality, the point at which a nuclear reactor sustains a continuous chain reaction on its own, a defining step in the country’s civil nuclear journey.