R&D needs firm commitment from govt
IN her 2024-25 Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a bunch of announcements relating to the future course of India’s energy mix in the light of the need to move towards the target of achieving ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by 2070. While continuing the thrust on renewable sources of energy, the government wants to give a push to nuclear power as well. “Nuclear energy is expected to form a very significant part of the energy mix for Viksit Bharat,” Sitharaman said. She did not elaborate on any time frame to make nuclear power a significant player in the energy mix but talked of some ideas to promote nuclear power: the setting up of small reactors — Bharat Small Reactors (BSRs); research and development to develop the Bharat Small Modular Reactor (BSMR); and a role for the private sector in this regard.
In her Budget speech, the Finance Minister said nuclear energy was expected to form a very significant part of the energy mix for Viksit Bharat.
At present, nuclear power constitutes a minuscule part of India’s energy mix. Per the data shared in the Economic Survey a day before the Budget, the total installed capacity of power in India stands at 494,000 MW (megawatt). Of this, nuclear power contributes a mere 6,800 MW, while renewable sources of energy account for 125,000 MW (which is almost a quarter of the total installed capacity). The rest comes from hydro and thermal power. The production of nuclear power has remained stagnant since 2016. Not a single megawatt of nuclear power has been added to the grid for nearly a decade. The promise of massive additions to the installed capacity has eluded the Department of Atomic Energy since the 1980s when it first set the target of 20,000 MW by 2000.
The reasons for the return of nuclear energy on the table are many. The most obvious is the need for energy transition necessitated due to climate change. Nuclear power is considered a clean, carbon-free source of energy. A study on India’s energy options towards ‘net zero’ done by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Ahmedabad) came up with some projections. While coal would continue as the backbone of the Indian energy system for the next two decades, renewable sources and nuclear power would be the predominant sources then on, according to the study. Countries are also realising that the energy transition requires certain critical technologies (battery storage, carbon capture, etc.) which are not readily available. China has become the main source of several critical materials and rare earths needed for batteries, electric vehicles, etc.
If Sitharaman wants nuclear energy to reach a ‘very significant’ level in the energy mix from the minuscule role it plays currently, a new policy direction and investment are necessary. The Budget does not provide any of this. Pinning all hopes on the private sector to achieve this is misplaced. The doors for non-government players in the nuclear sector have been open since the much-touted Indo-US nuclear deal. The deal promised a piece of the nuclear supplies pie for Indian companies. But not a rupee has been invested by any Indian or foreign investor nor have Indian companies got supply contracts from elsewhere, as hoped by then UPA government. The Atomic Energy Act, 1962, was amended to let the Nuclear Power Corporation form joint venture companies with other public sector entities like the National Thermal Power Corporation. Till recently, the Modi government has maintained that it does not propose to allow the private sector to enter the nuclear power domain. It is not clear if Sitharaman’s statement about the collaboration with the private sector reverses this position.
Coming to technology, the Finance Minister has spoken about BSRs and BMSRs. The International Atomic Energy Agency defines reactors under 300 MW capacity as ‘small’ and those up to 700 MW as ‘medium’. Most of the two dozen nuclear reactors in India are below 300 MW and so are small, the only exception being the two Kudankulam reactors which are 1,000 MW each and Kakrapar which has 700-MW reactors. The pressurised heavy water reactors operational in Tarapur (Maharashtra), Narora (UP), Rawatbhata (Rajasthan) and Kaiga (Karnataka) range between 160 MW and 220 MW. We don’t know if the government wants BSRs to be even smaller than the internationally accepted definition of ‘small’ or if it is going to rechristen existing reactors as BSRs because they are already small.
The idea of modular nuclear reactors, too, has been around for some years now. A modular reactor refers to using modules fabricated in factories and already available parts to assemble a small nuclear plant (below 300 MW) to speed up construction. The idea is that many such reactors can be planned at one site, and manufacturers can achieve ‘economies of scale’. However, nuclear suppliers have seen low demand for modular reactors because the regulatory requirements for design certification, construction and operation licences are similar to those for large reactors. The core issues of fuel availability, safety and nuclear waste disposal remain major challenges for nuclear power generation — be it through small, modular or large reactors.
The elephant in the room is R&D, be it any source of energy — nuclear, hydrogen, wind or solar. Unless we invest in developing critical technologies for each of these energy sources, the road to ‘net zero’ is going to be painful. Many technologies and critical materials needed for the energy transition are not available commercially or have to be sourced from monopoly suppliers. The Modi government has been stingy when it comes to spending on R&D. Sitharaman announced a new funding mechanism for R&D — the National Research Fund (NRF) — in 2019. On Tuesday, she said: “We will operationalise” the NRF, but still did not commit when. Her Budget speeches in the past have talked about funding to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore over five years for NRF. No such funding has materialised. Now, she is talking of “a financing pool of Rs 1 lakh crore” for R&D. What India needs is a firm commitment from the government to R&D in general and critical areas like energy in particular.
