Opinion Nuclear power expansion is an R&D challenge

The draft National Electricity Policy, released last week, aims to align the power sector with India’s long-term energy goals. It bears the imprint of the country’s climate commitments, particularly the 2030 target to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 45 per cent compared to 2005 levels. At the same time, the policy also attempts to recalibrate the power mix to meet India’s developmental priorities. Its emphasis on renewable energy is accompanied by a roadmap to ensure grid stability. Emerging sectors of the economy, such as AI and data systems, are particularly dependent on assured, uninterrupted electricity supply. Coal-based plants will continue to play an important role as buffers against the intermittency of solar and wind power. However, the policy is alive to the need to create a viable substitute to fossil fuels. Its thrust on a 10-fold upscaling of nuclear capacity by 2047 is of a piece with the country’s decarbonisation goals as well as its developmental imperatives.

Nuclear fission produces negligible carbon emissions, and unlike renewables, atomic energy is not affected by weather variabilities. After hydropower, it is the world’s second-largest source of low-carbon power, according to the International Energy Agency. The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act, passed by Parliament last month, has opened the doors for expanding the sector’s capacity. The draft electricity policy builds on the Act’s enabling provisions. It pushes for the adoption of advanced nuclear technologies such as small modular reactors (SMR) and direct use of nuclear power by commercial and industrial consumers. Such reactors have significant advantages — they take up less space, can be assembled relatively easily, have robust safety features, and can be installed on site. This means SMRs can be situated close to demand centres and replace the captive thermal power units of industrial centres.

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That said, generating 100 GW of nuclear power in the next 21 years is an ambitious goal. India’s domestic uranium resources are limited and generally of lower grade. The country is dependent on imports from Russia, Kazakhstan and Canada. Policymakers must now frame strategies to tap India’s large thorium deposits as an alternative to conventional nuclear fuel. Globally, thorium’s potential has not been realised because of nuclear power’s traditional links with military use — uranium and plutonium were used to develop atomic bombs. The challenge for the country’s policymakers, therefore, is to upscale R&D to extract and exploit this rare earth material.