Madras Atomic Power Station

Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) located at Kalpakkam about 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 indigenously constructed nuclear power station, with two units each generating 220 MW of electricity. The first and second units of the station went critical in 1983 and 1985, respectively. The station has reactors housed in a reactor building with double shell containment improving protection also in the case of a loss-of-coolant accident. An Interim Storage Facility (ISF) is also located in Kalpakkam. The facility is also home to India's first large scale fast breeder reactor of 500 MWe called the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor operated by BHAVINI and will also be the site of first two FBR-600 commercial fast breeder reactors. History During its construction, a total of 3.8 lakh (380,000) railway sleeper (logs) were brought from all over India to lift the 180 ton critical equipment in the first unit, due to lack of proper infrastructure and handling equipment. the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) was in its final construction stage, and was expected to reach criticality in March 2017 with 500 MW of electricity production. The following month the loading of the 1750 ton liquid sodium coolant were expected to happen in four to five months, with sources in the Department of Atomic Energy reporting that criticality would likely be reached only around May 2017.