How small modular nuclear reactors may help India to meet energy goals

India's move to build small modular nuclear reactors could hold the key to meeting renewable energy targets

The government is working hard to make solar and wind power mainstream, but it may achieve its renewable energy targets with help from an unexpected source: nuclear power. Under the radar, the pace of nuclear power development in India is expected to accelerate, riding on the promising new technology of small modular reactors (SMR).

Earlier this month, Vivek Lall, chief executive of General Atomics, waxed eloquent on the role nuclear technology could play in India in enhancing energy security at the annual general meeting of the US India Business Council in New Delhi. Just weeks before him, Niti Aayog member V K Saraswat made the same pitch but was more specific. In a media interview, Saraswat said the government must promote SMRs, which will be able to meet its energy requirements in a distributed manner. “And we are also thinking that it will be the best approach for replacing the ageing thermal power plants,” he had said.

Since India set up nuclear power plants, generation has consistently fallen way short of targets. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) had assessed the share of nuclear energy in the total power sector at 8.6 per cent by 2030 and double (16.6 per cent) that by 2052. In a written reply in Parliament this year, however, Jitendra Singh, minister of state for science and technology, offered a much lower estimate. “The share of nuclear energy in the total electricity generation in the country has remained around 3 to 3.5 percent since 2014.” By 2030, he noted, the installed capacity will be 22.5 GWe (gigawatt equivalent), “on progressive completion of projects under construction and accorded sanction”. The DAE estimate was for 48 GWe by 2030.

Now, the government is pinning its post-2030 hopes on the potential of SMR. Though this seems like a long shot, in the nuclear sector these timelines are actually seen as fast-forward movements. India reached the 3 GWe of installed nuclear power capacity in 2007, after almost half a century of effort. From there it has more than doubled the pace to reach the current 6.7 GWe by 2022.

Lall, who was earlier with Reliance Industries, is one of the several such company heads India is courting to set up these SMRs, which can be factory-built unlike the conventional nuclear reactors built at the site. The commercial deployment of these models is still some years off, though. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recently approved the first prototype for SMRs, to be built by American company NuScale. The slim, 23-metre cylinder-like structure that will generate 77 MWe (megawatt equivalent) of power is expected to be part of an array for a power plant that will produce between 308 MWe and 924 MWe. In a Business Standard article, columnist Ajay Shah noted that if they work well, “firms in India will see these new SMRs as components that can fit in their business planning … (since) in the event of a power outage, the nuclear reaction just subsides”.

But the government has to settle a thorny issue first. It is the resolution of issues related to the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act and the associated creation of an Indian Nuclear Insurance Pool. India has insisted that in the event of damage from a nuclear accident, it is the vendor who will bear unlimited liability from court action by those affected. The only succour India has offered to provide is a limited Rs 1,500-crore nuclear liability pool. In fact, negotiations with foreign nuclear vendors have often been stuck on these issues. It is one of the reasons why India has found it easier to deal with government-run companies like those from Russia rather than commercial ventures. Saraswat said these are early days and discussions on nuclear liability with those building SMRs are still some distance away.

Of the five projects with foreign collaboration for which the government has given in-principle clearance, two (see chart) are with the France and Russian government entities. There are only two signed with US commercial entities.

The adoption of the SMR route could also end the difficult route of developing nuclear technology India has been attempting since the 1950s. It is known as the “indigenous three-stage nuclear power programme to provide the country long-term energy security in a sustainable manner”, said Singh in another parliamentary reply this year.

The first stage of this route meant using natural uranium-fuelled pressurised heavy water reactors to produce electricity. The process generated plutonium 239 as a by-product. In the second stage, a process known as fast breeder reactors will use a mixture of plutonium-239 and natural uranium to generate energy to run the turbines and also in the process generate more plutonium-239. At an advanced stage, this fuel can be added to thorium (of which India has vast resources) to create the third stage reactors that will use uranium-233.

The complexity of the process, the sanctions on import of uranium, and lack of finance meant India could not move even to the second stage till the signing of the US-India civil nuclear deal in 2008.

The adoption of the SMRs, which do not use the thorium route, could, therefore, be seen as a tacit admission of changing track. The government has, for instance, fast-forwarded the setting up of ten indigenous pressurised heavy water reactors of 700-Mw capacity each in fleet mode. It means they too will be largely assembled in a factory, without being set up from scratch at the site of operations.

Government officials say, given the commitment to expand the non-fossil fuel basket, making all options available to develop nuclear power is vital. The SMR route is one of those.

Ongoing projects
 

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant or KKNPP (phase 3, 4): 2x1,000 Mw
KKNPP (phase 5, 6): 4x1,000 Mw
Ten indigenous, 700 Mw pressurised heavy water reactors to be set up in fleet mode
Prototype fast breeder reactor (500 Mw), being implemented by BHAVINI

(In operation)
 

22 reactors with total capacity of 6,780 Mw