Editorial 2 : Fuel for a green Viksit Bharat
Context
India’s aspiration to be “viksit” by the centenary year of its independence, while adhering to the net zero carbon emissions target for 2070, needs a strategy for sustained per capita energy use.
To Focus on
- It needs to focus on achieving a Human Development Index of 0.95, which is characteristic of advanced countries, and provide clean energy for this purpose. This corresponds to around 28,000 TWh of total energy annually.
- The available clean energy sources to address this need are renewable energy, large hydro power and nuclear.
- Among them, nuclear energy’s contribution would need to be at least around 20,000 TWh annually since the other two together are unlikely to exceed 8,000 TWh.
- Today, India consumes around 9,800 TWh annually with around 96 per cent coming from fossil resources.
- Clean energy needs to increase 70 times and around 70 per cent of it needs to come from nuclear in 45 years.
Nuclear energy
- After Independence, Homi Bhabha had advocated a three-stage nuclear power programme aimed at long term energy security and autonomy for the country.
- Any nuclear programme has to necessarily begin with uranium — the only natural source of fissionable material.
- While our uranium resources were modest to begin with, the emphasis on exploration has led to an increase in stocks.
- The ore grades, however, are very low. These reserves, despite the higher cost they entail, are a key source of energy security, especially in a situation when uranium imports are disrupted.
- Access to foreign uranium markets has enabled the first-stage nuclear programme to grow well beyond 10 GWe, a threshold that was envisaged earlier. However, the second-stage programme of fast breeder reactors is yet to take off.
The PHWRs
- We must, however, celebrate our domestic pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs), the proven and competitive technology that meets global benchmarks.
- While the 100 GWe nuclear mission launched by the government would still leave us about twentyfold below the nuclear capacity required for a net zero “Viksit Bharat”, realising it within the specified timeframe requires accelerated deployment.
- This, in turn, depends essentially on proven technologies — domestic PHWRs being the primary workhorse, supplemented by proven large light water reactors (LWRs).
- We must also bring in multiple deployment agencies, beyond NPCIL and now NTPC.
- The PHWR technology must be seen as a common national good and made available to potential domestic agencies for accelerated deployment with a mentoring approach.
- Efforts to minimise the costs are necessary in the case of LWRs by following the Make in India approach.
Accelerating India's Nuclear Energy Security
- A 100 GWe nuclear capacity needs 20,000 tons of uranium yearly—15% of global supply. This poses a major energy security risk. India’s three-stage programme can extract 60–70 times more energy by recycling fuel, making a shift to fast reactors urgent.
- Delays in fast breeder reactors make it vital to start using abundant thorium in PHWRs. This also helps prepare for the third stage with molten salt reactors (MSRs), even without full progress in stage two. MSRs and subcritical systems offer faster capacity growth.
- SMRs won’t scale before 2047 and will face uranium shortages. R&D should focus on thorium MSR-based SMRs and advanced stage-two and stage-three tech.
- Using thorium in PHWRs needs HALEU and proven fuel performance, which also boosts safety, economics, and security.
Conclusion
One should expect the 100 GWe nuclear mission to be a forerunner to the much larger nuclear energy deployment necessary for net zero Viksit Bharat and not reach a virtual dead end.