Kakrapar nuclear power plant
Kakrapar nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in India with 4 operating units totalling 1,840 MW gross. The site has 4 units on record in total.
Units
| Unit | Status | Type | Model | Gross MW | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | PHWR | Horizontal Pressure Tube type | 220 | 1993 | |
| Unit 2 | PHWR | Horizontal Pressure Tube type | 220 | 1995 | |
| Unit 3 | PHWR | PHWR-700 | 700 | 2023 | |
| Unit 4 | PHWR | PHWR-700 | 700 | 2024 |
Unit by unit
Each unit's rating, type and milestone dates as recorded by the Global Nuclear Power Tracker, with any correction we made to it. A dash or "not disclosed" means the source does not give the value.
Kakrapar nuclear power plant 1
| Reactor type | Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Indian PHWR |
| Size class | Small |
| Gross capacity | 220MW |
| Net capacity | 202MW |
| Thermal output | 801MWt |
| Enrichment | Natural uranium, 0.71% U-235no enrichment required |
| NSSS vendor | Nuclear Power Corporation of India |
| Owner | Nuclear Power Corporation Of India Ltd100% |
| Operator | Nuclear Power Corporation Of India |
| Construction start | 1 Dec 1984 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 3 Sep 1992 |
| Grid connection | 24 Nov 1992 |
| Commercial operation | 6 May 1993 |
Kakrapar nuclear power plant 2
| Reactor type | Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Indian PHWR |
| Size class | Small |
| Gross capacity | 220MW |
| Net capacity | 202MW |
| Thermal output | 801MWt |
| Enrichment | Natural uranium, 0.71% U-235no enrichment required |
| NSSS vendor | Nuclear Power Corporation of India |
| Owner | Nuclear Power Corporation Of India Ltd100% |
| Operator | Nuclear Power Corporation Of India |
| Construction start | 1 Apr 1985 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 8 Jan 1995 |
| Grid connection | 4 Mar 1995 |
| Commercial operation | 1 Sep 1995 |
Kakrapar nuclear power plant 3
| Reactor type | Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | PHWR-700 |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 700MW |
| Net capacity | 630MW |
| Thermal output | 2,166MWt |
| Enrichment | Natural uranium, 0.71% U-235no enrichment required |
| NSSS vendor | Nuclear Power Corporation of India |
| Owner | Nuclear Power Corporation Of India Ltd100% |
| Operator | Nuclear Power Corporation Of India |
| Construction start | 22 Nov 2010 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 22 Jul 2020 |
| Grid connection | 10 Jan 2021 |
| Commercial operation | 30 Jun 2023 |
Kakrapar nuclear power plant 4
GNPT records the commercial operation date as identical to the grid connection date (2024-02-20), which appears to be a field-copy error. The IAEA records commercial operation on 31 March 2024.
commercial_operation:
2024-02-20 → 2024-03-31
· IAEA Power Reactor Information System, reactor record KAKRAPAR-4
· verified 2026-09-06
| Reactor type | Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | PHWR-700 |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 700MW |
| Net capacity | 630MW |
| Thermal output | 2,166MWt |
| Enrichment | Natural uranium, 0.71% U-235no enrichment required |
| NSSS vendor | Nuclear Power Corporation of India |
| Owner | Nuclear Power Corporation Of India Ltd100% |
| Operator | Nuclear Power Corporation Of India |
| Construction start | 22 Nov 2010 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 17 Dec 2023 |
| Grid connection | 20 Feb 2024 |
| Commercial operation | 31 Mar 2024 |
Kakrapar nuclear power plant in context
By gross operating capacity Kakrapar nuclear power plant is the 2nd largest of 7 operating nuclear sites in India, holding 22% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 102nd of 172 worldwide.
Its operating units started up between 1993 and 2024; the median unit is 17.0 years old, younger than the median of 23.5 in India.
The 4 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 8.0 to 13.2 years (median 10.0) from construction start to grid connection; the median across all reactors connected in the 2020s is 7.7 years.
The nearest other tracked nuclear sites are Tarapur nuclear power plant (172 km).
Build time by unit
| Unit | Construction start | Grid connection | Years | Fleet median, same decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | 1984 | 1992 | 8.0 | 8.0 (1990s) |
| Unit 2 | 1985 | 1995 | 9.9 | 8.0 (1990s) |
| Unit 3 | 2010 | 2021 | 10.1 | 7.7 (2020s) |
| Unit 4 | 2010 | 2024 | 13.2 | 7.7 (2020s) |
Nearest tracked nuclear sites
| Site | Country | Distance | Operating GW gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tarapur nuclear power plant | India | 172 km | 1.2 |
How these are worked out: ranks use gross operating capacity; ages count from the start-up year on record, as on the age page; build times run from construction start to grid connection, as on the build-times page; ratings are the tracker's net and design net capacity, as on the uprates page. Distances are straight-line between exact positions, so a site with only an approximate position gets none. A unit missing a date or a rating is left out of the figure that needs it.
Earthquakes nearby
Loading the latest USGS check…
| Time (UTC) | Mag | Depth | Epicentre | Distance |
|---|
Magnitude 4.0 and above within 200 km of Kakrapar nuclear power plant's listed coordinates, past 30 days. This is distance, not shaking: it says nothing about damage or any change in operation. Every plant.
| Location | Gujarat, India |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 21.2384, 73.3489 |
| Elevation | about 50 mabove sea level |
| Setting | About 60 km from the sea |
| Region | Southern Asia |
| Units by status | Operating: 4 |
Elevation is read at the listed coordinates from a 30 m terrain model (SRTM 30 m). Two independent models differ by a median of 6 m across our plants and by up to about 40 m on steep or coastal ground, and a point on a shoreline can read as sea level. Distance to the water is measured to a generalised 1:10 million coastline, so a few kilometres or less is not resolved. This is context, not a design-basis or flood-risk figure.
| Owners | Nuclear Power Corporation Of India Ltd |
|---|---|
| Operators | Nuclear Power Corporation Of India |
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Sources
- Global Nuclear Power Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, August 2026 release , CC BY 4.0 · retrieved 2026-09-06
- GEM.wiki entry (further reading) , CC BY-SA 4.0, linked, not quoted
How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data