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India turns to small modular nuclear reactors to meet climate targets
India has been involved in nuclear energy and power for decades, but now the country is turning to small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) as part of a new, long-term push towards nuclear and renewable energy. In December 2025, the country’s parliament passed a bill that allows private companies for the first time to participate in India’s nuclear programme, which could see them involved in generating power, operating plants and making equipment.
Some commentators are unconvinced that the move will be enough to help meet India’s climate pledge to achieving 500 GW of non-fossil-fuel based energy generation by 2030, Interestingly, however, India has now joined other nations, such as Russia and China, in taking an interest in SMRs. They could help stem the overall decline in nuclear power, which now accounts for just 9% of electricity generated around the world – down from 17.5% in 1996.
Last year India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a nuclear energy mission funded with 200 billion Indian rupees ($2.2bn) to develop at least five indigenously designed and operational SMRs by 2033. Unlike huge, conventional nuclear plants, such as pressurised heavy-water reactors (PHWRs), most or all components of an SMR are manufactured in factories before being assembled at the reactor site.
SMRs, typically generating less than 300 MW of electrical power but — being modular – additional capacity can be brought on quickly and easily given their lower capital costs, shorter construction times, ability to work with lower-capacity grids and lower carbon emissions. Despite their promise, there are only two fully operating SMRs in the world — both in Russia — although two further high-temperature gas-cooled SMRs are currently being built in China. In June 2025, Rolls-Royce SMR was selected as the preferred bidder by Great British Nuclear to build the UK’s first fleet of SMRs, with plans to provide 470MW of low-carbon electricity.
Cost benefit analysis
An official at the Department of Atomic Energy told Physics World that part of that mix of five new SMRs in India could be 200 MW Bharat Small Modular Reactor, which are based on pressurized water reactor technology and use slightly enriched uranium as a fuel. Other options are 55 MW Small Modular Reactor and the Indian government also plans to partner with the private sector to deploy 220 MW Bharat Small Reactors.
Despite such moves, some are unconvinced that small nuclear reactors could help India scale its nuclear ambitions. “SMRs are still to demonstrate that they can supply electricity at scale,” says Karthik Ganesan, a fellow and director of partnerships at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a non-profit policy research think-tank based in New Delhi. “SMRs are a great option for captive consumption, where large investment that will take time to start generating is at a premium.”
Ganesan, however, says it is too early to comment on the commercial viability of SMRs as cost reductions from SMRs depend on how much of the technology is produced in a factory and in what quantities. “We are yet to get to that point and any test reactors deployed would certainly not be the ones to benchmark their long-term competitiveness,” he says. “[But] even at a higher tariff, SMRs will still have a use case for industrial consumers who want certainty in long-term tariffs and reliable continuous supply in a world where carbon dioxide emissions will be much smaller than what we see from the power sector today.”
M V Ramana from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, who works in international security and energy supply, is concerned over the cost efficiency of SMRs compared to their traditional counterparts. “Larger reactors are cheaper on a per-megawatt basis because their material and work requirements do not scale linearly with power capacity,” says Ramana. This, according to Ramana, means that the electricity SMRs produce will be more expensive than nuclear energy from large reactors, which are already far more expensive than renewables such as solar and wind energy.
Clean or unclean?
Even if SMRs take over from PHWRs, there is still the question of what do with its nuclear waste. As Ramana points out, all activities linked to the nuclear fuel chain – from mining uranium to dealing with the radioactive wastes produced – have significant health and environmental impacts. “The nuclear fuel chain is polluting, albeit in a different way from that of fossil fuels,” he says, adding that those pollutants remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years. “There is no demonstrated solution to managing these radioactive wastes—nor can there be, given the challenge of trying to ensure that these materials do not come into contact with living beings,” says Ramana.
Ganesan, however, thinks that nuclear energy is still clean as it produces electricity with much a lower environmental footprint especially when it comes to so-called “criteria pollutants”: ozone; particulate matter; carbon monoxide; lead; sulphur dioxide; and nitrogen dioxide. While nuclear waste still needs to be managed, Ganesan says the associated costs are already included in the price of setting up a reactor. “In due course, with technological development, the burn up will significantly higher and waste generated a lot lesser.”
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