Problem power: On small modular reactor plan

The Indian government is planning to team up with the private sector to study and test small modular reactors. Nuclear power offers a sufficiently high and sustainable power output, even if externalised costs like those of building safe and reliable reactors and handling spent nuclear fuel complicate this calculus. The nuclear power tariff is thus higher from ‘younger’ facilities, even if they also fill gaps that haunt power from renewable sources. They aspire to be safer without compromising commercial feasibility by leveraging the higher energy content of nuclear fuel, a modular design, a smaller operational surface area, and lower capital costs. SMRs’ ability to bolster the prospects of nuclear power in India will thus depend on their commercial viability — and in turn on the availability of less uncertain market conditions, stable grids, and opportunities to mass-produce parts — and the price of proliferation resistance.