Nuclear Energy Mission: Roadmap for Self-Reliant Nuclear Energy Ecosystem to Achieve 100 GWe by 2047

Key facts

• The Nuclear Energy Mission, announced in the Union Budget 2025-26, aims to expand India's nuclear energy capacity to 100 GWe by 2047.
• The government's two-pronged approach includes deployment of large indigenous 700 MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors at greenfield sites and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) at brownfield locations.
• At least five indigenous Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are targeted for development and operationalisation by 2033 under the Nuclear Energy Mission.
• The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), a constituent unit of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), is designing the 220 MWe Bharat Small Modular Reactor (BSMR-200) and the 55 MWe SMR-55.
• BARC is developing a High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGCR) of up to 5 MWth capacity for coupling with a thermochemical cycle for hydrogen production.
• The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act, 2025 has been enacted to enable wider participation of public and private entities in the nuclear sector.
• The SHANTI Act provides statutory status to the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.
• India's three-stage nuclear power programme includes thorium utilisation, with Thorium Oxide pellets used in PHWRs and uranium-233 from reprocessed Thoria pins fuelling the KAMINI reactor at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam.
• The government is expanding indigenous nuclear medicine infrastructure through the Isotope Production Reactor (IPR) to augment domestic production of medical isotopes.