Kakrapar Atomic Power achieves criticality

The third unit of the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project (KAPP-3) in Gujarat achieved its ‘first criticality’.
First Criticality refers to a term that signifies the initiation of a controlled but sustained nuclear fission reaction that generates energy.
Kakrapar Atomic Power Project consists of two 220 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor and two IPHWR-700 (Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor-700, a Generation III+ reactor developed from earlier 220 MW and 540 MW designs).
Kakrapar Atomic Power Project unit 3 is India’s first 700 MWe (megawatt electric) unit, and India’s biggest indigenously developed variant of the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR).
Kakrapar Atomic Power addresses the issue of excess thermal margins.
Until now, the biggest reactor size of indigenous design was the 540 MWe PHWR, two of which have been deployed in Tarapur, Maharashtra.
Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor uses natural uranium as fuel and heavy water (deuterium oxide D2O) as moderator. They are the mainstay of India’s nuclear reactor fleet.
Note: 'Thermal margin' refers to the extent to which the operating temperature of the reactor is below its maximum operating temperature.