India mulls allowing private companies' participation to develop nuclear plants

In a bid to expand the Nuclear power sector, India is mulling to allow private companies' participation. This state-controlled sector is aiming to develop small modular reactors to help decarbonize industry.

Atomic Energy minister Jitendra Singh in a written reply to questions in Parliament revealed that India is reviewing its six-decade-old atomic energy law to allow more involvement from non-state companies. Currently private technology and construction in nuclear plants are allowed, however, operations and fuel management are controlled by federal government companies.

The Union Minister also said that detailed technical talks are underway to assess the feasibility of the SMR technology, and the government is exploring collaboration with other countries for jointly developing such reactors.

India currently has about 7.5 gigawatts of atomic power capacity, all operated by state-run Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd. The nation aims to expand it to almost 22.5 gigawatts by 2031, Singh said. He further added that the increase will primarily happen through large-sized plants.

India which is the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases seeks clean sources of power to reduce its dependence on coal, which currently produces about 70% of India’s electricity. This has pushed for more discussions about modular reactors or SMRs. India has also committed to have half its power generation capacity run on clean sources by the end of this decade.