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This year’s Union Budget has emphasised nuclear energy’s contribution to India’s energy mix, especially when it comes to emerging technologies. One of the technologies mentioned in Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s speech was Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which are being marketed as safe and cost-effective. She added that the private sector will be welcome to invest in the government’s efforts.
“Nuclear energy is expected to form a very significant part of the energy mix for Viksit Bharat. Towards that pursuit, our government will partner with the private sector for setting up Bharat Small Reactors, research and development of Bharat Small Modular Reactors, and research and development of newer technologies for nuclear energy,” Sitharaman said in her speech.
SMRs are miniature versions of nuclear reactors that can be mass-produced in factories. With a power capacity of up to 300 Megawatt (MW) per unit, they can generate about one-third of the power traditional nuclear reactors generate.
Globally, Russia developed the first commercial SMR, which has been running since May 2020, producing energy from two 35 MW plants.
Also, as per the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Argentina, Canada, China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States are either constructing or are in the process of licensing them.
The production of nuclear energy faces a two-faced challenge.
“One is the huge capital cost per MW (for a large capacity nuclear power reactor of say roughly 1000 MW) and the second is what to do with the nuclear waste (that is the spent fuel after it is discharged from a power reactor),” Vinod C Sahni, former Department of Atomic Energy Homi Bhabha Chair Professor, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, told Down To Earth (DTE).
“While small modular reactors are being talked about in the context of bringing down the capital cost, (but no working systems are yet in place to say the extent of benefit that could accrue from their usage), they cannot mitigate the second issue,” he added.
The Union government has had its eyes on SMR for some time now. In December 2023, in a Lok Sabha reply, the government said it was working on new technologies such as small nuclear reactors to ensure a clean energy transition.
It noted that deploying SMRs across the country, especially in locations unsuitable for large nuclear plants, can produce large amounts of low-carbon electricity. It can be installed and operated for repurposing ageing fossil fuel-based power plants and is not meant to replace traditional nuclear plants, it added. The government also acknowledged that the techno-commercial aspects of SMRs are still in the initial stages.
Further, experts are not convinced that SMRs are safer than their traditional counterparts.
Edwin Lyman, the Director of Nuclear Power Safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, explained that their safety and security risks will depend on the technologies, the designs, and how they are located, constructed, and operated.
“It is not possible to make a broad conclusion regarding their safety, and much of the public discussion surrounding these reactors is misleading or simply wrong,” he previously told DTE.
Also, Lyman doesn’t see how SMRs could be cost-effective. Building five small reactors of 200 MW capacity will cost more than building one 1,000 MW nuclear reactor, he added.
“SMR advocates claim that cost savings can avoid this cost penalty through mass production and modular construction, but there is little evidence to support that claim,” Lyman explained.
Further, a 2022 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences warned that SMRs will likely produce more volumes of chemically or physically reactive waste than existing ones. This, it added, would impact options for the management and disposal of this waste.
"The sudden focus on SMRs shows, first and foremost, that the Department of Atomic Energy’s (DAE) traditional plans for expanding nuclear energy in India, based on the three-phase plan involving heavy water reactors, fast breeder reactors, and thorium-based reactors, has failed," MV Ramana, professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the University of British Columbia, told DTE.
This, he added, is not new, since the DAE has never met any of its targets.
In India, nuclear energy has never generated more than 3 per cent of electricity, and it will most likely continue to be a marginal source of power when viewed in terms of its share of energy in India in the future too.
On the involvement of private players, Ramana said that he has good reasons to be concerned about involving private players in hazardous technology like nuclear power.
"Nuclear reactors, by their very nature, are susceptible to catastrophic releases of energy and radioactivity – as happened at Fukushima and Chornobyl," he explained.
The expert added that even small reactors are capable of severe accidents resulting in the spread of radioactive contamination.
"The potential for accidents becomes greater when nuclear facilities are operated by organisations whose priorities include cost-cutting and profit-making," he added.