Small modular reactors (SMRs), the setting up of which was mentioned in the finance minister\u2019s budget speech last week, are the way to go for green energy transition, many prominent citizens have said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitaraman, noted in her speech that \u201cnuclear energy is expected to form a very significant part of the energy mix for Viksit Bharat.\u201d She added that towards that pursuit, \u201cour government will partner with the private sector for setting up Bharat Small Reactors, research & development of Bharat Small Modular Reactor, and research & development of newer technologies for nuclear energy.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
SMRs, which are small sized reactors of about 100 MW to 250 MW capacity, are the in-thing in the energy sector today, with many countries building such reactors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked for a reaction to the statement, M K Narayanan, former National Security Advisor to Government of India and former Governor of West Bengal, told businessline<\/i> that he had \u201calways been a votary of SMRs.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Narayanan, who was deeply involved in the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement of 2005, said that setting up large nuclear reactors had become difficult due to a variety of reasons. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Describing SMRs as a \u201ccompelling solution\u201d, Narayanan said that while large nuclear power plants produce a lot of nuclear waste, disposing of waste from SMRs would not be a big problem\u2014especially if emerging fuels, such as the ANEEL fuel, are used.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Renowned nuclear scientist and former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Anil Kakodkar, also welcomes SMRs. \u201cIndian reactors are on par with the best in the world,\u201d Kakodkar had told businessline<\/i> in May. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Former CEO of the IT giant, Cognizant Technology Solutions,\u00a0Lakshmi Narayanan, also told businessline<\/i> that he was \u201cexcited\u201d about SMRs\u2014an area in which India can be a global technology leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, the founder of IIT Madras Research Park, who taught electrical engineering at IIT Madras, is another supporter of SMRs. Jhunjhunwala has formed a group to examine micro nuclear reactors, of capacities as small as 5 MW. The Energy Consortium of IIT Madras is working on developing one such reactor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\nExpensive reactors\u00a0
\n<\/h5>\nSMRs have their own share of detractors. A recent report of the think-tank, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), decried SMRs as \u201ctoo expensive, too slow to build and too risky to play a significant role in transitioning away from fossil fuels.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Noting that the industry is \u201cplagued by cost overruns\u201d, the report observed that a key argument of SMR proponents was that the new reactors would be economically competitive. \u201cBut the on-the-ground experience with the initial SMRs that have been built or that are currently under construction shows that this simply is not true,\u201d said David Schlissel, IEEFA director of resource planning analysis and co-author of the report. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom 2016 to 2020, they said the target power price was $55\/megawatt-hour (MWh). Now, after preparing a new and much more detailed cost estimate, the target price for the power from the proposed SMR has soared to $89\/MWh, that too with subsidies,\u201d the IEEFA report said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Indian experts are not impressed by the argument. Noting that green energy transition could not be done without nuclear energy, M K Narayanan said that even if SMRs were costly, \u201cif it has to be done, it has to be done.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Kakodkar, going a step further, believes that India-made reactors would cost \u201cat least half of the reactors made in Western countries.\u201d He also observed that integration of large amounts of intermittent generation from renewable energy sources like wind and solar would be costlier than nuclear power from indigenously built reactors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nANEEL \u2013 fuel of the future\u00a0
\n<\/h5>\nInterestingly, all the three \u2013 M K Narayanan, Kakodkar and Lakshmi Narayanan \u2013 support a few nuclear fuel developed by an American company, Clean Core Thorium Energy set up by an Indian businessman, Mehul Shah. Lakshmi Narayanan has also invested in the company. \u00a0<\/p>\n
As businessline<\/i> reported on January 10, 2024, the Chicago-based company has developed (and patented) a fuel, which is a mix of Thorium and Uranium of a certain level of enrichment, called HALEU (High Assay Low Enriched Uranium). <\/p>\n
Clean Core calls this concoction ANEEL (Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life). ANEEL, which is a mixture of 80 per cent thorium and the rest Uranium enriched to a shade under 20 per cent,\u00a0can enable India start using Thorium, abundantly available in the country, for producing nuclear energy. The fuel is currently undergoing tests at the Idaho National Laboratory, USA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The good thing about ANEEL fuel is that it can be used in pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs), something that India is an expert in. India has decades of experience in running small PHWRs, of 220 MW capacity, at Kalpakkam near Chennai. <\/p>\n
The Bharat Small Modular Reactor, mentioned in the budget speech, may be an offshoot of the 220 MW PHWRs.) ANEEL can fast-track India\u2019s entry into SMRs.\u00a0\u201cIn my view, the only truly operating SMR in the world is India\u2019s indigenous \u201cBharat Small Reactor\u201d,\u201d Shah told businessline<\/i>. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cNow that India needs to achieve a transition to large-scale green nuclear energy deployment, the management of a large volume of spent fuel arising from imported natural uranium could become a serious one. ANEEL fuel can shrink the spent fuel inventory by a factor of seven while further improving safety, accident tolerance, economics, and proliferation resistance,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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