AERB grants operational license to two home-built 700 MW PHWRS in Gujarat

India's nuclear regulator AERB has granted operation license for two indigenously developed 700 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in Gujarat.

The KAPS-3 reactor was commissioned at full power in August 2023, while the KAPS-4 unit followed the same month a year later.

"The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has concluded the Design and Commissioning Safety Reviews and issued the License for Operation of Units 3 and 4 of KAPS-3&4, the country's first 700 MWe indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs)," a statement from the regulator said.

Since the 700 MW reactor was the first of its kind, the licensing process involved rigorous multi-tiered safety reviews and assessment of the reactor design, covering the entire life cycle in multiple stages from siting, construction to commissioning at full-power.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) received the License for Operation for KAPS 3&4 from the AERB for a period of five years on July 3.

The issuance of the license is a shot in the arm for NPCIL, which is spearheading building 10 PHWRs of 700 MWe each in fleet mode.

India has 15 PHWRs of 220 MWe and two of 540 MWe capacity operational at various sites across the country.

The 540 MWe PHWR design was upgraded to 700 MWe and the first pair of such reactors are operational at Kakrapar. A similar 700 MW reactor at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan began commercial operations in March this year.

Besides AERB, several reactor safety experts from the Technical Support Organisations made significant contributions towards review of the Design and Commissioning results, which spanned almost 15 years.

As a part of Phase-C Commissioning, KAPS-3 received permission for full power operation in August 2023, followed by KAPS-4 in August 2024.

After further review of plant performance close to rated power, AERB has now granted the License for Operation to NPCIL for a period of five years.