Small Modular Reactor: How the world is watching India's nuclear gamble

India Today

17 hours ago

A silent nuclear moment is unfolding in India, and unlike the bombast of past energy revolutions—solar parks inaugurated with drone flyovers or wind corridors showcased in global summits—this one is quiet, careful, but potentially far more consequential.At its heart lies an unlikely acronym: SMR, short for Small Modular Reactor, and the unassuming promise that India might finally build a civilian nuclear future that is safe, scalable and sovereign. The world is watching because if India succeeds, it may not just change its own energy destiny, it could alter the global nuclear order.advertisementMuch of the initial momentum has been domestic. Last month, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) floated a request for proposals to site two indigenously designed, 220 MW small modular reactors within industrial zones. But this was no mere bureaucratic announcement. The model was radical: the reactors would be built using private industrial capital, operated by NPCIL, with ownership reverting to the state for a token Rs 1, while the companies would receive long-term, cheap, clean power at prices beginning as low as Rs 0.60 per unit. Tariffs would rise by just a paise a year thereafter.Yet within days of the call, some of India's biggest energy-intensive businesses lined up. Mukesh Ambani's Reliance, which has announced an aggressive pivot to green hydrogen and battery storage, reportedly expressed early interest. Gautam Adani's group, with major power, cement and port operations, quietly signaled alignment.advertisement
JSW, looking to decarbonise its steel production, entered feasibility talks. Both Hindalco and Vedanta, electricity-guzzling aluminium and metals giants, acknowledged the commercial logic. And Tata Power, which straddles coal and renewables, has internally modelled SMR-linked transmission clusters for its future grids.This corporate interest has fundamentally changed the energy conversation in New Delhi. What started as a niche DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) project is now being viewed as a national industrial mission—India's shot at becoming a manufacturing and operational hub for the next generation of nuclear energy.The political timing has only sharpened the urgency. In February, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had set aside Rs 1 trillion in budgetary backing for long-gestation strategic infrastructure, including SMRs. A separate Nuclear Energy Mission, with a Rs 20,000 crore allocation, is in the works for 2025-26.The numbers tell a story. India wants to increase its nuclear capacity to 22 GW by 2031 and to an ambitious 100 GW by 2047. While that includes large reactors, it's the modular segment that now has the attention of planners and financiers alike. If it materialises at scale, it will also allow India to begin replacing coal from its base load mix, but also serve as a flexible resource for balancing and recalibrating the grid—especially as the share of variable renewables like solar and wind surges. SMRs, with their dispatchable nature and smaller footprint, offer the kind of grid stability coal once did, but without the carbon.advertisementGlobally, India's push has not gone unnoticed. The Donald Trump administration, returning to power with a renewed focus on energy dominance and reshoring strategic supply chains, is keenly watching the Indian SMR moment. It continues a policy foundation it had itself laid during Trump's first term, when US agencies launched the FIRST (Foundational Infrastructure for the Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology) initiative to promote American-designed nuclear reactors globally.Now, with a second Trump term underway, SMRs are once again central to US foreign energy policy—viewed as a clean, exportable technology that can counter Chinese and Russian reactor diplomacy. It did get space in Trump-Narendra Modi joint statement in February this year. Washington sees India not only as a vital test-bed for SMR deployment in the global south, but also as a long-term collaborator in developing next-generation nuclear ecosystems that combine American design with Indian manufacturing and deployment scale.The World Bank Group's interest is even more striking. While historically reticent about nuclear energy, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has held at least two high-level dialogues in the past year focused exclusively on SMRs in emerging markets—with India as the centerpiece. The rationale is straightforward: if SMRs can de-risk power production in South Asia, they can be the backbone of green industrial growth, especially in countries with large manufacturing bases but insufficient clean base-load capacity. Clean energy investors, increasingly constrained by the intermittency of renewables, are warming to this logic.advertisementCountries such as Canada, US, Russia, China, and the UK have already invested in SMR prototypes and limited deployments. Argentina has a 25 MW SMR nearing operationalisation. The UAE, already a nuclear player with the Barakah plant, is exploring Korean-designed SMRs for desalination. South Korea's SMART SMR design is being actively marketed in Southeast Asia. For India, which already operates 22 nuclear reactors generating just 3.1 per cent of its electricity, the leap to SMRs could finally decouple nuclear growth from foreign dependency, while also positioning it as a clean tech exporter to the Global South.But it's not without friction. For SMRs to be commercially viable in India, one legislative hurdle must be crossed: the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010. The law, unique to India, puts supplier liability for nuclear accidents squarely on the private vendor—a provision that has scared away most global manufacturers. No country with a civilian nuclear programme has such a clause. And while public opinion in India has historically supported strict nuclear liability norms, government insiders now admit that without amendments, the SMR dream may remain just that. In her Union Budget speech, Sitharaman has made commitments of reworking these legislations. However, as the country is still nursing wounds of Bhopal Gas tragedy of 1984, reworking liability clauses will not be easy.advertisementResistance is building—quietly, but visibly. While corporate and strategic sectors are aligned, some domestic lobby groups have begun to voice concern. Trade unions have flagged safety risks, citing the complexity of managing dozens of decentralized reactors. A few legacy power sector players—especially coal-linked ones—have lobbied against faster clearances for SMR zones, fearing that the new model may cannibalize their regulatory turf.Interestingly, the Sangh Parivar's response has been measured, not oppositional. Organisations such as Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh have taken a neutral stance so far, but are in consultation with scientists, former Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) officials and energy security experts to firm up their position. Their concerns are twofold: first, the geopolitical calibrations that a strong Indo-US SMR collaboration might require, and second, long-term safety assurance in an Indian operational context.advertisementAdditionally, the new technology may help to cut down dependence on Chinese imports. However, they remain supportive of India's indigenous development of Bharat Small Reactors (BSR), a parallel effort within DAE to produce entirely homegrown modular reactors with local components and supply chains.This careful balancing act also reflects the Modi government's broader nuclear strategy—globalise technology, localise production and indigenise control. The emerging blueprint for SMRs in India, government sources confirm, will require all critical systems to have 51 per cent domestic value addition. Private companies will be able to own the infrastructure, but NPCIL or BHAVINI (Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited) will continue to hold the regulatory licence and operational command. This is aimed at maintaining public confidence and ensuring that the 'nuclear commons' is not privatised in haste.Equally important is the strategic calculus. In the aftermath of India's tensions with China and the global supply chain reset, SMRs offer a way to reduce dependence on Chinese solar modules and battery components. A successful SMR rollout would give India a dispatchable, low-carbon anchor around which industrial and residential power consumption could be reorganised. From freight corridors to defence outposts, from port-linked economic zones to high-demand urban clusters, SMRs could be deployed in locations where grid expansion is slow or infeasible.The real-world prototypes being examined are modular in more than name. Some are prefabricated in factories and trucked to site, reducing construction timelines from a decade to less than three years. Others, like NuScale's VOYGR reactors, feature passive safety systems that eliminate the need for human intervention during emergencies. Indian engineers are working to adapt these designs to local climatic, seismic, and hydrological conditions. There is even talk of creating a sovereign SMR insurance pool, led by GIC and LIC, to ease liability fears and ensure quick financial response in case of incidents.For India, which has already committed to net-zero emissions by 2070 and has an electricity demand that's expected to triple by 2040, the energy mix question is not ideological—it is existential. Coal, despite ongoing use, is being edged out on environmental and financing grounds. Solar and wind, while fast-growing, have load curve limitations. Hydro is facing ecological and geopolitical constraints. That leaves nuclear as the only non-fossil, scalable, 24/7 base-load source. And within that, SMRs are the only form that can be built fast, financed flexibly, and deployed modularly across varied terrain.Yet public messaging remains cautious. Officials are keen to avoid overstating what is, at this point, a still-theoretical energy leap. Pilot projects, even in the best-case scenario, will take until 2028–29 to show operational proof. Large-scale rollouts, even with supportive policy, could take a decade. But there is growing alignment—between government, capital, and engineering—for a nuclear future that is less monolithic and more modular.If that alignment holds, India could do for modular nuclear what it did for generic vaccines: scale it, secure it, and share it with the world. For now, what's clear is this: the reactors may be small, but the ambition is anything but.Subscribe to India Today Magazine