Nuclear Energy Is A Crucial Piece In The Puzzle Of Climate Action

If we are to avert climate catastrophe, we must embrace all science-backed solutions, including those with complex legacies

- Sumant Sinha

A wave of announcements on targets, funding and commercial collaborations in the past six months signals a global revival of interest in nuclear energy. India's government has also announced a target to increase nuclear-power generation capacity to 100 gigawatts (GW) by 2047, about 12 times the current level. Rightly so. Nuclear is the only scalable, low-carbon electricity source that runs 24/7 and can truly displace coal and gas, which together account for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.

But is this the sole driver of renewed interest in this 70-year-old technology? What has changed—and what role might nuclear play in the world's energy transition?

A technology of peaks and pauses: Nuclear electricity first connected to the grid in 1954 in the erstwhile Soviet Union. Its heyday stretched from the 1970s to the 1990s, but growth slowed globally over the next three decades for three key reasons. First, electricity demand plateaued in the West where most nuclear capacity development was happening, reducing the need for new generation capacity. Second, high-profile incidents like Three Mile Island in the US and Chernobyl in the Soviet Union fuelled public opposition over safety and environmental risks. Third, privatization of the power sector and the shift to market-based electricity trading made nuclear's long construction timelines and frequent cost overruns financially risky. With regulators not guaranteeing tariffs to ensure cost recovery, investment dried up.