Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

The Reactor Research Centre set up at Kalpakkam, India, 80 km south of Chennai in 1971 under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was renamed Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in 1985. The center is primarily a research facility besides being a nuclear power plant aiding in meeting a percentage of the electricity demands of the country.

The Director of IGCAR is Dr. S. C. Chetal.

Commercial Reactors

The facility houses two PHWRs that generate 220MWe each that operate for commercial purposes. These are managed independently by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India.

Research Reactors

Operational

There are two reactors at IGCAR.

• FBTR is a liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactor.
• KAMINI (Kalpakkam Mini) is a light water reactor with U233 as fuel meant for neutron radiography and activation analysis experiments. These reactors are operated and maintained by Reactor Operation and Maintenance Group(ROMG).

Moved

In addition the Research Facility also built the 100MWe reactor for India's first nuclear submarine the Advanced Technology Vessel project and operated it on land for testing purposes since it attained criticality in December 2004.

Under Construction

Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, a 500MWe fast breeder reactor using...
Read More