When the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) was incorporated on 17 September 1987, India’s nuclear power programme was still in its early stages. Over the next 39 years, NPCIL grew into the country’s principal nuclear power utility, building and operating reactors across multiple states and helping establish nuclear energy as a reliable source of clean electricity.
Today, NPCIL operates 24 commercial reactors with a total installed capacity of 8,780 MW. At the same time, it is overseeing one of the largest expansion phases in the history of India’s nuclear power programme, with multiple reactors under construction and additional fleet-mode projects in the pipeline.
As NPCIL marks its Foundation Day, the numbers highlight not only how far the organisation has come, but also the scale of the journey ahead. From indigenous 700 MW PHWRs and the expansion of Kudankulam to an envisaged capacity of 21,980 MW by 2031–32, NPCIL is moving from building India’s nuclear fleet to powering its next phase of growth.
Here is a snapshot of NPCIL’s journey through the numbers that define its past, present and future.
Nuclear.IN · Data brief
NPCIL by the numbers, 1987–2026
Four decades after it was set up to run India’s atomic power stations, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited is heading into its busiest construction phase yet. Here is the fleet, in figures — where it started, where it stands, and where it is headed by 2031–32.
Where the fleet stands today
NPCIL was incorporated on 17 September 1987 to build, own and operate India’s nuclear power stations. Since then it has grown into a fleet of 24 commercial reactors — every unit in the country bar the retired RAPS-1 — with a construction pipeline now larger than at any point in its history.
Commercial reactors operating across India, excluding RAPS-1
Total installed nuclear capacity currently operating
Under construction, totalling 6,100 MW
Additional 700 MW units approved, being implemented in fleet mode
Under implementation: 7 reactors under construction plus 10 in pre-project activities
Cumulative electricity generated, million units, to August 2026
Over that generating history, NPCIL puts the emissions avoided by running nuclear plants instead of fossil-fuel capacity at roughly 865 million tonnes of CO₂ — a figure the corporation cites as its running climate ledger alongside the megawatt count.
India’s new nuclear era
The current build-out marks a shift in scale. NPCIL’s reactors have historically clustered around 220 MW; the fleet now under construction is built around a larger, fully indigenous 700 MW pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) design, alongside the country’s biggest single units at Kudankulam.
First indigenous 700 MW PHWR fleet
- Kakrapar‑3700 MW
- Kakrapar‑4700 MW
- Rajasthan‑7700 MW
Kudankulam expansion
- Operating2 × 1,000 MW
- Under development4 × 1,000 MW
Fleet-mode reactors: 10 × 700 MW
The approved 700 MW units beyond Kakrapar and Rajasthan are being built as a standardised fleet across four sites, a model intended to compress construction schedules by repeating one proven design rather than engineering each station from scratch.
The 2031–32 milestone
Add the 6,100 MW under construction and the 7,000 MW of sanctioned fleet-mode PHWRs to today’s 8,780 MW, and NPCIL’s own projection lands at 21,980 MW of envisaged capacity by 2031–32 — roughly two and a half times what the fleet runs today, without counting anything sanctioned after this pipeline.
From building India’s nuclear fleet to powering its next expansion.
