New Delhi:
India has ambitious plans to set up nuclear reactors across the country, especially in states where thermal power plants have completed their service life or where access to coal is a challenge.
With its focus on clean energy, India wants to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, which is why the central government has now asked states to set up nuclear power plants.
India’s Power Minister Manohar Lal chaired the Conference of Energy Ministers of States and Union Territories on Tuesday, where he asked states far from coal resources to set up nuclear power plants. This move also takes into account the rapidly growing demand for electricity in the country.
In the Union Budget, the central government had proposed to partner with private investors to set up small-scale nuclear reactors to meet the growing energy demand.
“States should consider setting up nuclear power plants at the locations where coal-based thermal power plants have completed their life cycle,” the Union minister told state governments, according to a statement from the Center.
The minister also asked states to identify power companies and list them on stock exchanges to meet their investment objectives in the power sector. The minister asked states to boost their renewable energy capacity and stressed the need to improve transmission systems to achieve that.
Many foreign power plant builders have stayed away from building nuclear power plants in India due to the stringent laws on compensation and the very strict rules and regulations imposed by New Delhi in the event of an accident, accident or leakage.
India currently has 24 nuclear power plants in operation. All of them are operated and maintained by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited or NPCIL, which comes under the Department of Atomic Energy. NPCIL is a public sector undertaking or PSU, headquartered in Mumbai.
India’s current power generation from nuclear power plants is about 8 gigawatts. New Delhi has ambitious plans to increase this to more than 20 gigawatts by 2032.
India is the only G20 country to achieve its climate targets before the deadline and aims to add 500 gigawatts of renewable energy to its electricity grid by 2030. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also pledged to make India a country with net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.