Nuclear Power Corporation of India's first ever 540 MW power generation unit attained criticality on 6 March 2005. This unit represents Unit-4 of the Tarapur atomic power plant (TAPP) in Maharashtra.

The TAPP-4 540 MW power unit is the single largest power unit in the country of any kind.

The unit was completed at a cost of Rs.6,000 crore compared with the estimated cost of Rs.6,500 crore when work began on the project in 2000.

The project has been completed seven months ahead of schedule (within five years from the first pour of concrete on 8 March 2000) and is expected to sell power at less than Rs.2.65 a unit, compared to the estimated Rs.3.50 a unit when the project was first conceived in the late 1980s.

TAPP-4 will sell 39 per cent of its power to Maharashtra, 19 per cent to Gujarat, 17 per cent to Madhya Pradesh, and the rest to Goa, Daman and Diu. Commercial production is likely in August 2005.

TAPP-3, also of 540 MWe, is expected to be completed by March 2006.

TAPP-Unit 4 is the fifteenth nuclear power unit in the country. The existing 14 nuclear reactors of NPCIL have a combined capacity of 2,770 MWe (monitored capacity: 2,720 MWe according to Central Electricity Authority). NPCIL is currently engaged in setting up eight more nuclear power plants with aggregate capacity 3,960 MWe.

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Uranium fuel loading begins at TAPP-4 (26-Jan-05)