India's first commercial fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam

For more than 15 years Indian nuclear scientists have been working on a high-tech giant nuclear reactor that is likened to the  'akshaya patra', the mythical goblet with a never-ending supply of food, due to the reactor’s capacity to make nuclear energy sustainable. India has indigenously designed an ultra modern fast-breeder reactor and the Department of Atomic Energy is getting ready to commission it. 'Fast-Breeder Reactor' are special kind of nuclear reactors that are called so not because they run faster, but because the neutrons that sustain the atomic chain reaction travel at a much higher velocity than neutrons that help run the traditional atomic plants. They are called breeders because they generate more atomic fuel than they consume as they work. Yukiya Amano, Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, said that fast reactors are much safer than traditional reactors as they reduce the long-lived radioactive waste by many fold and can help extract up to 70 percent more energy than traditional reactors. The world's only commercially operating fast breeder reactor is the Beloyarsk Nuclear Plant situated in the Ural mountains of Russia. M Chudakov, a Russian fast breeder expert who is with the IAEA calls "these reactors a bridge to the future as they can supply an almost unlimited supply of electricity". The nuclear reactor at Kalpakkam is India’s pride as all eyes are on this global nuclear milestone that is likely to be crossed this year.