Over the years, India has mastered all the stages of the nuclear fuel cycle, which include mining, processing & fabrication of nuclear fuel; design, construction, and operation of nuclear power reactors and research reactors; reprocessing of spent fuel and management of radioactive wastes. Ionising radiation is also used widely in medical, industrial and research areas. Since its inception, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was enforcing radiological safety in the country through in -house or

more »

... -hoc committees, till a dedicated regulatory body (AERB) was set up 25 years ago. Today India is operating 19 nuclear power plants with different vintages (2 BWRs and 17 PHWRS) and another 8 (1 PFBR, 5 PHWRs and 2 PWRs) are in various stages of construction. Recently there are new evolutionary reactors (AHWRs) for which design has been completed and are on the threshold for consideration for construction. To match the rapid growth in the need for power India is also about to take up construction of large evolutionary PWRs of foreign design. This variety in the Indian nuclear power programme has come up due to a systematic evaluation and optimisation of the resources and technology available within the country. Added to this is the growing use of radiation in non -power applications. As the safety supervision of this huge programme is the responsibility of AERB, it faces various challenges, like,