Indian PHWRs are now among the best-performing reactors globally

Anil Kakodkar, former chairman, Atomic Energy Commission of India and ex-director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre tells Nandini Keshari why India should speed up its nuclear programme. Edited excerpts

- Nandini Keshari

India's nuclear capacity is currently just 8.8GW, while China's is 32.8GW. Why are we lagging?

India is a non-signatory to the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty]. This brought many restrictions on the civilian use of nuclear technology. This has been a basic political challenge for our nuclear-energy programme.

After India's 1974 peaceful nuclear explosion, international embargoes tightened. Canada, which was collaborating with us on PHWRs [pressurised heavy water reactors] in Rajasthan, withdrew. We had to complete the reactors ourselves.

The 1998 tests further tightened embargoes, making progress difficult. We had to overcome external technology restrictions while developing reactors indigenously. This took time, but the result is a robust and reliable system. Indian PHWRs are now among the best-performing reactors globally. For instance, Kaiga Unit-1 once set a world record of 962 days of continuous operation.

The government plans to transition from the Bharat Small Reactors (BSRs) to Bharat Small Modular Reactors (BSMRs). How will this transition take place?

Only Russia has one or two SMR prototypes. No SMR has been deployed commercially. SMRs can only be competitive if manufacturing is 100% in India and the order volume is large enough for mass production.

In contrast, BSR is based on the proven 220MW PHWR, which already has hundreds of reactor-years of operating experience. It is already commercially viable and can be gradually modularised.