Seventeen years after a civil nuclear deal was struck between India and the US that made India a virtual member of the global nuclear club, a big push is being given to the low-carbon energy source. Budget FY26 announced a plan to set up a Nuclear Energy Mission for research and development of small modular reactors (SMRs) with an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore to be spent over the next few years. The finance minister also set a target to develop “at least 100 gigawatts (Gw) of nuclear energy by 2047”, and underlined that such capacity is “essential” for the country’s energy transition efforts. More important, she said the country would amend the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, to facilitate the entry of private companies in nuclear power generation. All this is sensible policy.
It appears the stage is finally set for rewarding partnerships between the US and Indian entities to tap the immense potential of nuclear fusion technology. On the face of it, the target set in the Budget for domestic nuclear capacity addition would look like a tall order, given that the country’s installed strength of nuclear power is just 8.1 Gw or barely 2% of the total electricity-generation capacity. The US has operational nuclear capacity of just 100 Gw, with France (64 Gw) and China (58 Gw) assuming the next two slots. Of course, India already has a credible plan to nearly triple its nuclear power capacity to 22.8 Gw by FY32 with 10 plants under construction. The acceleration of investment and capacity addition in the capital- and tech-intensive sector would principally depend on how fast and seamlessly the sector is populated with more players, and how cohesively the public and private players work together.
Conventionally, nuclear power units in India have remained the preserve of state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, and the Indian Rare Earths have their feats of strength, but are yet to have the required synergies with the private sector. NTPC, the largest producer of thermal power, has in recent years diversified in good measure into renewable energy, but even its plans for nuclear power are designed to take shape only by 2032. In this context, for the Budget steps to produce the desired outcome, the start-up ecosystem needs to be energised and incentivised to develop SMRs that are typically safer and relatively more portable than conventional reactors. The target to have at least five indigenous SMRs by 2033 needs to be pursued with vigour.
In parallel, however, the prospect of conventional fission technology should also be explored by scaling up the prototype developed of thorium fast-breeder reactors. India has rich thorium deposits on the southwest coast. These need to be efficiently utilised to create a virtuous closed-loop nuclear fuel cycle. It is also pertinent for India to contribute to and benefit from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, a joint effort of the US, China, the European Union, Russia, Japan, India, and South Korea that continues to be unaffected by geopolitical turbulence. Nuclear energy ventures are an inherent component of the global project for CO2 removal, where too India has a critical role to play by making use of its fast-emerging global capability centres. The example of thriving public-private ventures in space tech is there for the nuclear sector to emulate.