How does nuclear energy fit into India’s plan to relieve electricity generation of carbon emissions?

With the passage of a law that not only opens the door for private participation in India’s nuclear power industry but also promotes it, the government hopes to meet its target of 100GW in generation capacity by 2047. Currently, it accounts for a mere 2% of our grid capacity, and given India’s demand projection for 2047 and the electricity required to meet it, that goal implies a share of 5% by then.

Today’s tiny share is explainable. Nuclear plants have a notoriously long gestation period before they can supply power.

They often face resistance on the basis of safety concerns, with accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima embedded in public memory. And India’s indigenous technology has made little progress, with the second of our three-stage programme yet to fructify before it can transition to the use of thorium, which is easier to find in the country than the right kind of uranium.Interest in nuclear power has seen a global revival for the role it could play in climate action.

Plants that house nuclear reactors produce carbon-free electricity around the clock, unlike solar and wind projects that are subject to the vagaries of weather. A reactor design rethink spurred by the power-guzzling needs of AI—aided by investments from Big Tech firms to meet their climate goals—has resulted in the development of small modular reactors (SMRs), which claim to overcome the legacy drawbacks of nuclear plants.

Big reactors, despite their limitations, are also back in vogue for the same reason. Even though India’s 2047 target represents a modest share of total power capacity, the volume of electricity would be significant; our per capita consumption is currently half the world average and we aspire to be a developed nation by then.