Kaiga nuclear power plant
Kaiga nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in India with 4 operating units totalling 880 MW gross. The site has 6 units on record in total.
Units
| Unit | Status | Type | Model | Gross MW | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | PHWR | Horizontal Pressure Tube type | 220 | 2000 | |
| Unit 2 | PHWR | Horizontal Pressure Tube type | 220 | 2000 | |
| Unit 3 | PHWR | Horizontal Pressure Tube type | 220 | 2007 | |
| Unit 4 | PHWR | Horizontal Pressure Tube type | 220 | 2011 | |
| Unit 5 | Under construction | PHWR | Horizontal Pressure Tube type | 700 | 2031 |
| Unit 6 | Under construction | PHWR | Horizontal Pressure Tube type | 700 | 2031 |
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.
Kaiga 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 Sep 1989 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 26 Sep 2000 |
| Grid connection | 12 Oct 2000 |
| Commercial operation | 16 Nov 2000 |
Kaiga 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 Dec 1989 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 24 Sep 1999 |
| Grid connection | 2 Dec 1999 |
| Commercial operation | 16 Mar 2000 |
Kaiga nuclear power plant 3
| Reactor type | Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Indian PHWR |
| Size class | Small |
| Gross capacity | 220MW |
| Net capacity | 202MW |
| Thermal output | 800MWt |
| 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 | 30 Mar 2002 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 26 Feb 2007 |
| Grid connection | 11 Apr 2007 |
| Commercial operation | 6 May 2007 |
Kaiga nuclear power plant 4
| Reactor type | Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Indian PHWR |
| Size class | Small |
| Gross capacity | 220MW |
| Net capacity | 202MW |
| Thermal output | 800MWt |
| 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 | 10 May 2002 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 27 Nov 2010 |
| Grid connection | 19 Jan 2011 |
| Commercial operation | 20 Jan 2011 |
Kaiga nuclear power plant 5 Under construction
| Reactor type | Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Indian PHWR |
| 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 | 1 Mar 2026 |
|---|---|
| Commercial operation | 1 Jan 2031 |
Kaiga nuclear power plant 6 Under construction
| Reactor type | Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Indian PHWR |
| 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 | 1 Mar 2026 |
|---|---|
| Commercial operation | 1 Jan 2031 |
Kaiga nuclear power plant in context
By gross operating capacity Kaiga nuclear power plant is the 5th largest of 7 operating nuclear sites in India, holding 10% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 154th of 172 worldwide.
Its operating units started up between 2000 and 2011; the median unit is 22.5 years old, younger than the median of 23.5 in India.
The 4 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 5.0 to 11.1 years (median 9.3) from construction start to grid connection; the median across all reactors connected in the 2000s is 6.8 years.
No other nuclear site with an exact position in this dataset lies within 300 km.
Build time by unit
| Unit | Construction start | Grid connection | Years | Fleet median, same decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 2 | 1989 | 1999 | 10.0 | 8.0 (1990s) |
| Unit 1 | 1989 | 2000 | 11.1 | 6.8 (2000s) |
| Unit 3 | 2002 | 2007 | 5.0 | 6.8 (2000s) |
| Unit 4 | 2002 | 2011 | 8.7 | 5.9 (2010s) |
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 Kaiga 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 | Karnataka, India |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 14.8666, 74.4398 |
| Elevation | about 40 mabove sea level |
| Setting | 22 km from the sea |
| Region | Southern Asia |
| Units by status | Operating: 4 Under construction: 2 |
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