[en] India has opted for a three stage nuclear power programme based on a closed fuel cycle approach for the development of the nuclear energy. Currently India has a total of 16 operating power reactors comprising 14 PHWRs and 2 BWRs with a total power capacity of 3.9 GW. The energy demand is growing by leaps and bounds and the per capita energy requirement is expected to cross 5000 KWh by the middle of the century. For the next 20 years, India will have to rely mainly on thermal and hydroelectric power. However in the long run, nuclear energy can play a vital role in the future energy mix since our coal reserve is finite and hydroelectric power addition can only be moderate. Reprocessing and recycling of the fissile and fertile components back into appropriate reactor systems is an integral part of the Indian nuclear energy programme. The limited natural uranium resources will be used up in the first phase and the vast resources of thorium is expected to be employed for sustained electricity generation in the third phase. The plutonium recovered from the first phase will serve as a link between the two phases where it will be deployed in fast reactors for enhancing the fissile inventory to launch the thorium fuel cycle. The choice of the reprocessing and plutonium recycle option has endowed the nuclear power program with a variety of midcourse options in both uranium and thorium fuel cycle. This spent fuel reprocessing programme was launched way back in 1964 with the commissioning of the plant at Tromby for the reprocessing of research reactor spent fuel. This was followed by setting up of another plant in 1975 at Tarapur for the reprocessing of spent fuel from PHWRs. The next plant for the reprocessing of power reactor spent fuel was commissioned in 1998 at Kalpakkam to meet the growing requirements of the nuclear energy programme. India is about to step up its nuclear energy production and is ready to launch the second stage activities by setting up Fast Breeder Reactors. Reprocessing facilities are being augmented to meet the fuel requirements of the second stage. Process developments are in progress to meet the reprocessing challenges of the fast reactor fuel cycle. For India, the building up of fissile material inventory at a fast pace is a prerequisite for the early introduction of thorium in the power programme. To meet the challenges of a thorium fuel cycle, reprocessing of irradiated thorium for ²³³U recovery was initiated almost from the beginning. After pilot scale studies in the early seventies, an engineering facility started operating in this domain for the recovery of ²³³U from thoria irradiated in research reactors using Thorex process. An engineering facility for the recovery of ²³³U from thoria rods irradiated in PHWRs during the initial flux flattening is expected to be in operation soon. As a predecessor to the third stage reactor for utilisation of thorium, an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor(AHWR) employing both (Th-Pu)O₂ and (Th-²³³U)O₂ fuels in one cluster is being inducted into the nuclear power programme. Reprocessing of the spent fuel from this reactor will pose many challenges and will necessitate the development of a flow sheet for the recovery of three components viz. U, Th and Pu. Currently fuel cycle studies are initiated to develop suitable flow sheets to close the AHWR fuel cycle. (author)