India’s atomic energy programme is often discussed in terms of reactors and megawatts, yet the Department of Atomic Energy’s 2025 review points to a broader pattern: better performance from the existing fleet, a sequenced build pipeline, and high-technology outputs that feed into manufacturing and strategic systems. It is a growth story measured in dependable units delivered to the grid and in capability created behind the scenes.
The strongest signal is operational. Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited generated 56,681 million units of electricity in FY 2024–25, the highest in its history, and crossed 50 billion units in a financial year for the first time. The review attributes about 49 million tonnes of avoided CO₂ emissions to that output, underlining nuclear’s role as firm, low-carbon supply.
| Metric (FY 2024–25 unless stated) | Figure reported | What it indicates |
| NPCIL electricity generation | 56,681 million units | Record fleet utilisation |
| Annual milestone | 50 billion units | New scale benchmark |
| CO₂ emissions avoided | ~49 million tonnes | Climate benefit of firm supply |
| Continuous runs > 1 year | 53 occasions | Reliability and maintenance maturity |
Reliability is not just a talking point because it changes economics. The fleet has recorded uninterrupted operation beyond a year on 53 occasions, with Tarapur unit 3 exceeding its earlier 521-day record and Kudankulam unit 2 also running for more than a year. Fewer outages mean better utilisation of capital-intensive assets and more predictable power for the grid.
Alongside performance, 2025 tightened the link between output today and capacity tomorrow. On 25 September 2025, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the four-unit Mahi Banswara Nuclear Power Project in Rajasthan. Each unit is a 700 MW pressurised heavy water reactor, to be executed through the NPCIL–NTPC joint venture named ASHVINI. The project choice reinforces a domestic PHWR pathway that India has been standardising, allowing design and fabrication lessons to carry across builds.
That standardisation is already visible. Kakrapar units 3 and 4 received the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board’s licence for regular operation. In Rajasthan, Rawatbhata unit 7 entered commercial operation on 15 April 2025 after connecting to the Northern Grid, becoming the third indigenous 700 MW PHWR in a sanctioned series of sixteen. The Atomic Energy Commission has also cleared pre-project activities for an additional ten 700 MW PHWR units, over and above the 22.5 GW capacity planned by 2032.
| Programme element | Units | Unit size | Status in review |
| Mahi Banswara (ASHVINI JV) | 4 | 700 MW | Foundation stone laid |
| Indigenous 700 MW series | 16 | 700 MW | Sanctioned programme |
| Additional PHWR units | 10 | 700 MW | Pre-project work cleared |
The more subtle, and arguably more strategic, advances sit outside electricity. India formally released an indigenously developed Certified Reference Material for rare earth elements: a ferrocarbonatite standard (BARC B1401) that certifies thirteen rare earths and six major elements. Reference materials rarely make headlines, but they are essential to credible exploration, extraction and process control—especially when the aim is to move from raw resources to higher-value processing.
High-purity materials capability is also being deepened. The DAE has set up the first electronics-grade Boron-11 enrichment facility at Talcher, achieving 99.8 per cent purity suitable for semiconductor applications, with conversion into purified enriched boric acid for subsequent transformation. The Nuclear Fuel Complex developed production technology for high residual resistivity ratio niobium ingots and sheets, relevant to advanced accelerator programmes, while a niobium thermit production facility co…
Put together, the message is practical rather than rhetorical: record generation strengthens energy security; a widening PHWR pipeline signals long-horizon capacity building; and the focus on standards and specialised materials shows India climbing the value chain in areas that global supply shocks have made newly strategic. India is planning, building, and delivering.
(Data source: PIB and other GOI platforms)