Shaping of nuclear fuel fabrication in India a journey of self-reliance

The Indian nuclear programme stresses upon the indigenous development of technologies and self-reliance. The article presents an overview of nuclear fuel fabrication for research and power reactors. In the recent past, stress is on the automation of various manufacturing and inspection processes. This results in consistency and repeatability in quality. A wide variety of nuclear fuels have been used in the research reactors and this provides options for the future. The fabrication of fuel for the research reactors is done at the Atomic Fuels Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, and the Nuclear Fuel Complex, Hyderabad has the mandate to supply fuel bundles to various power reactors. This article gives an overview of developments over the years and the present status. It also covers fuel manufacturing for a variety of research and power reactors in the country.