India's Plan to Increase Its Nuclear Energy Capacity

Introduction

Fig. 1: The Indian Prime Minister laying the foundation stone of the Anu Vidyut Pariyojana (Nuclear Power Project) in Haryana, which is the site of the first nuclear power plant in northern India. (Source : Wikimedia Commons)

Currently only 3% of India's energy needs are met using Nuclear Energy. [1] The head of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission, Anil Kakodkar, recently said that India will not be able to meet its net zero emissions target without increasing its nuclear power. [2] Demand from Indian citizens to increase India's nuclear energy capacity is also increasing. [3] This is because Indian citizens believe that the benefits of nuclear energy far outweigh the risks. This belief stems from the perception that increasing nuclear energy will lead to decreased costs and increased availability of energy. [3] Influenced by these factors, the Indian government has laid out an ambitious plan to increase India's nuclear energy capacity so that it can meet 25% of the country's energy demand by 2050.

India's Plan to Increase Nuclear Energy

India has a three stage nuclear plan. [4] India planned to start stage 2 in 2018 by using its prototype fast breeder reactor, however this was delayed. [5] The prototype reactor still hasn't been completed as of writing this report. India is therefore now planning to parallelize its stage 1 and 2 implementation. India is working on developing the fast breeder prototype in conjunction with an aggressive push to build pressurized heavy water reactors.

12 new reactors have been commissioned by the government to be built. [6] These 12 reactors include one reactor that will be built in the northern part of India (Haryana) for the first time to increase supply to northern states. Fig. 1 shows the laying down of the foundation stone of the site. Five new northern sites have also been identified as potential reactor construction spots. [6] The Indian government in collaboration with technical contributors in France has also planned the construction of the world's largest nuclear power plant in the state of Maharashtra. [7] This power plant will contain 6 reactors each with a capacity of 1650 MW. [7] However, the finalization of the project proposal is still in the discussion phase and hasn't been approved yet. [7] The Indian government has approved a policy that will give the department of atomic energy an increased spending budget of 1.2 billion USD every year till 2029 to work on both stages.

The expected outcome of these policies is expected to triple India's nuclear energy production capacity by 2031. [8] The combined capacity of all reactors in India is planned to be 22,480 MW by 2031. [7]

Conclusion

India's plan to increase its nuclear energy capacity seems very promising. However, an interesting question that arises is, will this increase in capacity lead to better outcomes for India? India's peak power demand in 2020 was 183,804 MW. [9] This demand is itself expected to double by 2031. When faced with this reality, it seems that even India's current aggressive plan to expand its nuclear energy capacity might not be able to keep up with its rapidly increasing energy demands.

© Renasha Mishra. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.

References

[1] G. Udit, "The Nuclear Energy History of India," Physics 241, Stanford University, Spring 2018.

[2] M. Ramesh, "India Cannot Meet Net-Zero Emissions Targets Without Nuclear Power: Kakodkar," The Hindu Business Line, 3 Dec 21.

[3] K. Gupta et al., "The Future of Nuclear Energy in India: Evidence From a Nationwide Survey," Energy Policy 156, 112388 (2021).

[4] S. Parekh, "India's Three Stage Nuclear Program," Physics 241, Stanford University, Winter 2014.

[5] D. Koshy, "Developments in India's Three-Stage Nuclear Program," Physics 241, Stanford University, Winter 2018.

[6] A. Chaturvedi, "'India to have Nine Nuclear Reactors by 2024': Govt Informs Rajya Sabha," Hindustan Times, 2 Dec 21.

[7] S. Singh, "Govt Has Given In-Principle Approval for Setting up 6 N-Power Reactors at Jaitapur: Minister," Times of India, 17 Dec 21.

[8] V. Mohan, "India to Increase Nuclear Energy Capacity Three Times in Next Ten Years," Times of India, 15 Sep 21.

[9] "General Review 2021," Central Electric Authority of India, April 2021.