India's first nuclear power plant is:

The Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS), in the Palghar district of Maharashtra, about 100 kilometres north of Mumbai, was India's first commercial nuclear power plant. It began commercial operation on 28 October 1969. It was also the first nuclear power plant in Asia.

The first two units at Tarapur were boiling water reactors (BWRs), originally of 210 MW each and later derated to 160 MW, built by the American companies General Electric and Bechtel under a 1963 agreement between India and the USA. They use enriched uranium as fuel. Two pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) of 540 MW each were added later, in 2005-06. Tarapur Units 1 and 2 are among the oldest operating nuclear reactors in the world.

India's nuclear power programme was planned by Dr Homi J. Bhabha, the father of India's nuclear programme. It follows a three-stage plan designed to make use of India's limited uranium and large thorium reserves:

Stage 1: pressurised heavy water reactors using natural uranium as fuel.

Stage 2: fast breeder reactors using plutonium from Stage 1. A Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (500 MW) is at Kalpakkam; core loading began in 2024.

Stage 3: reactors using thorium-232, which India has in abundance in monazite sands of Kerala.

Other nuclear power plants in India include Rawatbhata (Rajasthan), Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu), Narora (Uttar Pradesh), Kakrapar (Gujarat), Kaiga (Karnataka) and Kudankulam (Tamil Nadu), the largest, built with Russian help. Nuclear power plants are operated by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL). India aims to reach 100 GW of nuclear power capacity by 2047.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Rawatbhata (Rajasthan), the second plant, began in 1973 with Canadian help.
• ✗Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu) is the first fully indigenous nuclear power station (1984).
• ✗Narora (Uttar Pradesh) began in 1991.