India's Long Pursuit of Nuclear Power

Involvement of the private sector and the focus on self-reliance should help the country achieve target set in the Union budget

- Arun Prakash

The FY26 Union Budget set the ambitious target of achieving 100,000 MW of nuclear power capacity by 2047, emphasizing the crucial role of nuclear energy not only in the nation's industrial imperatives but also in its desire to move away from fossil fuels and achieve net zero emissions by 2070.

India's electricity demand is growing at a rate of 6-8% annually. While nuclear energy was recognized soon after Independence as a panacea for meeting power needs and achieving developmental goals, the progress here has been erratic and disappointing. A look at the past is instructive.

A week after China's first nuclear test, on October 16, 1964, Homi J Bhabha, the first chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), spoke on All India Radio. According to an account in American political scientist George Perkovich's India's Nuclear Bomb, Bhabha spelt out the advantages of acquiring nuclear weapons and went on to quantify the costs involved. He stated that a 10-kiloton "explosion" would cost $350,000 (₹17.5 lakh at the then rate of 5 rupees to the dollar), while the cost of a 2-megaton "explosion" would be ₹30 lakh, and a stockpile of 50 hydrogen bombs could be created for ₹15 crore. Earlier, while in London, Bhabha had declared that India could explode an atom bomb within 18 months of a decision to do so.

In hindsight, it is obvious that Bhabha had erred in both his time and cost estimation of nuclear-weapon capability. But more to the point is the fact that he had cast his mind into the future and advocated exploitation of the country's nascent scientific potential across the full spectrum of nuclear technology. Apart from advocating nuclear weapons for defence, he was convinced that abundant availability of electric power from nuclear plants would, by itself, trigger India's rapid economic development.