In the latest budget speech, the Indian Finance Minister reiterated an earlier-articulated goal for Nuclear Energy capacity—to reach 100 GW by 2047. Where are we now? At 8 GW. Does the goal sound more than just a bit ambitious?

In this episode, we will learn a tiny bit of nuclear science as well as about the race against time we have set ourselves up with.

Script & Presentation: K. Bharat Kumar

Videography: Shiva Raj S

Editing: Shibu Narayan

Union Budget 2025: What’s in it for the energy sector?

| Video Credit:
The Hindu

A look at what the Union Budget 2025 had in store for renewable energy, solar power and nuclear energy.

Video: Sabika Syed

Editing: Tayyab Hussain

A Sam Altman-backed startup has raised nearly half a billion dollars as it aims to build the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant to solve the energy crunch issue. US-based Helion Energy received $425 million in Series F investment that included investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, SoftBank, and Vision Fund 2 with existing investors Mr Altman, Capricorn Investment Group, Mithril Capital, Dustin Moskovitz, and Nucor also participating.

With the latest round of funding, Helion has raised over $1 billion in capital since it was founded in 2013. The company claims that it will build the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant by 2028 and has already secured a purchase agreement from Microsoft which is a major investor in Mr Altman’s OpenAI.

“I am very excited for what this funding will enable for us. We will be radically scaling up our manufacturing in the US – enabling us to build capacitors, magnets, and semiconductors much faster than we have been able to before. This accelerates the construction of the world’s first fusion power plant and then all our plants to come,” said David Kirtley, Helion’s co-founder and CEO.

Scientists regard nuclear fusion as the holy grail of energy. It is what powers our Sun as atomic nuclei are merged to create massive amounts of energy, which is the opposite of the fission process used in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants, where the heavy atom is split into multiple smaller ones.

Polaris, Helion’s seventh prototype, unveiled recently in Everett, Washinton, operates at temperatures greater than 100 million degrees Celsius with the company hoping to produce electricity from it.

Also Read | China’s ‘Artificial Sun’ Reaches 100 Million Degrees For Record 1,000 Seconds

China’s nuclear fusion reactor

The development comes in the backdrop of scientists at the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion energy reactor, dubbed China’s ‘artificial sun’, managed to sustain plasma for a whopping 1,000 seconds, breaking the 403-second record it set in 2023.

By stabilising the system for 1,000 seconds, scientists believe a major milestone in the quest to improve the technology has been achieved. The nuclear reactor is yet to achieve ignition which is the point at which nuclear fusion creates its own energy and sustains the reactions. However, the new record is an encouraging step towards maintaining prolonged, confined plasma loops that may power future reactors.

Promoting nuclear power was long taboo in Brussels, but a high-profile international summit on Thursday sent loud and clear the message that atomic energy — now touted by its champions as key to fighting climate change — is back.

In the past two years, atomic pioneer France has been spearheading a drive to establish nuclear energy as a key source of carbon-free energy in the EU.

Organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Brussels summit followed on from last year’s COP-28 climate talks, at which 22 nations backed a call to triple the world’s nuclear energy capacity by 2050.

“This is a fight where we have to use all the available, dispatchable, CO2-free energy sources for the common challenge,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told the summit bringing together more than 30 countries, from Europe but also the U.S., China and Brazil.

In a joint declaration, the states committed to “work to fully unlock the potential of nuclear energy,” including by mobilising public and private finance to meet the sector’s colossal investment needs.

Inside the European Union, that message is being carried by a “nuclear alliance” of a dozen countries including France, launched last year with a view to weighing on policy, with a string of successes.

The Kudankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The story so far: On March 21, Brussels hosted the first-ever Nuclear Energy Summit, co-chaired by the Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi. Several world leaders joined the summit to highlight the role of nuclear energy in addressing climate change.

How did this come about?

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai (UAE) in December 2023 stated the indispensable role of nuclear energy to meet climate goals. The declaration signed by 22 world leaders mentioned the need to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050. The Nuclear Energy Summit, an initiative in collaboration with the IAEA’s ‘Atoms4Netzero’ programme, is part of the multilateral approach to decarbonisation. Nuclear power emits four times less carbon than solar farms or other renewable sources such as wind, hydropower, and geothermal. Most importantly, nuclear power has the capacity to supply uninterrupted energy irrespective of geographical constraints making it a crucial component of the wider renewable energy mix. Nuclear power plants (NPP) also have low operating costs, smaller land imprint and a longer life cycle compared to all the other renewable energy sources.

How can nuclear energy be financed?

Two key motives for the large-scale adoption of nuclear power as the base load energy source are technology and finance. Recent developments in nuclear technology including Small Modular Reactors (SMR), radiation proofing in existing plants, and extended fuel cycles, have the potential to substantially mitigate nuclear-related risks. Signifying the destigmatisation of nuclear energy is the entry of technology startups in an the otherwise government-run industry. The role of technical advancements in reducing carbon emissions is highlighted by an IAEA study, which predicts that while existing technologies will play a significant role, by 2050, half of carbon reductions will come from technologies currently in the prototype stage.

However, in spite of technical advancements, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and private investors have not made any significant contribution to the industry. The World Bank has not provided financing for a nuclear project since its $40 million loan to Italy in 1959. There is a pressing need to reassess nuclear financing policies of MDBS to accommodate private capital or blended finance models.

Has the cooperative model worked?

There are successful financial practices that can be replicated, for instance the cooperative funding models of France, South Korea, Russia, and the U.K. where a group of investors raise credit from the market and take full responsibility for project delivery. In Finland, large power plants have been funded by multiple private companies since the 1970s using a cooperative finance model called ‘Mankala’. Under this model, companies jointly own energy producers and share the costs of building and operating plants. They don’t pay dividends but can buy the energy at a cost based on their ownership share, with investors being wholesalers, retailers, or large industrial firms. Financial creativity and market support with low interest rates can unravel the potential of nuclear energy at scale.

There are 440 nuclear reactors in the world, accounting for a quarter of the world’s low-carbon energy. The number of nuclear reactors is increasing, with 60 reactors under construction and 110 in the planning stage, most being in Asia, particularly China, which is soon to overtake the U.S. and the nuclear giant France. China has set a target to produce 10% of its electricity from nuclear energy by 2035 and 18% by 2060. However, the state of nuclear infrastructure development and finance mobilisation is not proportional. NuScale Power, previously expected to be the first U.S. company licensed to build a 462MW SMR in Utah, terminated its planned project due to rising costs. Nuclear powerhouses Westinghouse and Areva also filed bankruptcy due to project overruns.

What about India?

India’s first commercial NPP in Pahalgarh, Tarapur offers reliable energy at 2/kWh lower than solar power tariffs. At Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, a newer power plant offers electricity in the range of 4-6/kWh comparable to coal-fired thermal power plants. Despite its versatile nature, nuclear power contributes only 1.6% of the total renewable energy mix in India. Stigma, weaponisation risk, radiation leak, regulation, high upfront cost, and long project overruns are the reasons for low adoption rate of nuclear energy.

Recently, the nuclear industry has been undergoing novel liberalisation, with ambitious plans for growth in India and abroad. Beginning with the invitation of $26 billion in private investments, a phase-wise tripling of nuclear capacity from 7,480 MW to 22,480 MW by 2031-2032, and Prime Minister Modi’s attendance at the core loading of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) all mark a positive future for the industry. The PFBR’s ability to generate fuel and power at the same time represents a significant advancement in India’s mostly self-reliant nuclear industry.

The author is a policy professional and a consultant at RIS, New Delhi. Tweets @Alinyst