Union Budget 2025: Reactor plan not enriched with funds

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a ₹20,000 crore ‘Nuclear Energy Mission’ to develop indigenous Small Modular Reactors (SMR). File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a ₹20,000 crore ‘Nuclear Energy Mission’ to develop indigenous Small Modular Reactors (SMR). The Budget proposes that at least five of these reactors will be operationalised by 2033. However, a perusal of the Budget documents suggests no financial commitments towards these this year.

The Department of Atomic Energy expects to spend ₹24,049 crore in 2025-26, or similar to the ₹24,450 crore it is expected to spend by March 2024. These are even less than ₹25,882 crore it spent in 2023-2024.

Flagship schemes, or missions flagged in the Finance Minister’s Budget speech, reflect long-term intent and usually see a mention, or a nominal allocation for that year in the Budget documents. However, no such notes and explanations are provided by the Department of Atomic Energy’s stated demands.

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In her Budget speech last July, Ms. Sitharaman said the government would be partnering with the private sector for setting up Bharat Small Reactors (BSR), research and development of Bharat Small Modular Reactor (BSMR), and research & development of newer technologies for nuclear energy.

This is important, she said, to India’s larger goal of ensuring 100 GW of nuclear energy by 2047 and towards this, amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act would be made.

While they have the word “small” in common, BSR and BSMR are different. The former refers to incrementally modified forms of India’s existing Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) whereas BSMR is a nascent technology being researched globally.

“The larger import of the Finance Minister’s speech is that the future of nuclear technology in India lies with the private sector. It is an inversion of how things are today, where the government nuclear establishment builds, operates, funds reactors. We have seen the limitations of that approach,” said R. Srikanth, an expert on India’s nuclear policy and based at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru.

The BSR, the government expects, will be built and run by the State-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) but financed by the private players in the power sector. Once experienced with the running of such power plants, it is expected that SMRs can be developed by the private sector.