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Source: The post is based on an article “A new dawn for nuclear energy” published in The Business Standard on 5th September 2022.
Syllabus: GS 3- Energy
News: This article discusses about the issues related with nuclear energy and the position of India in the nuclear power generation.
What is discouraging nuclear energy?
The accidents at Three Mile Island in the US (1979), Chernobyl in the USSR (1986), and particularly Fukushima in Japan (2011) raised a concern for the use on nuclear energy.
But researchers found that stopping nuclear energy production contributed to more deaths in Japan than the accident itself.
While conventional big nuclear plants have faced difficulties, progress has taken place with small plants.
Submarines and aircraft carriers in the West have used numerous small nuclear plants for decades. Their safety record has been perfect.
Can costs of setting-up nuclear power become low?
It will require assembly line manufacturing for making it at a low cost.
Under present calculations, if 12 modules are installed giving a 600 MW plant, the cost of electricity (under first world conditions) is estimated at between $41 and $65 per MWh.
In India, both costs (nuclear and renewables) will be higher because of the country risk and the difficulties of the financial system.
Competition, innovation, learning that comes from scale, and manufacturing on assembly lines will all contribute to gains in the cost structure.
What is the situation in India in nuclear power generation?
In India nuclear generation has not worked out well.
The state sector faces problems and progress requires importing nuclear reactors made by private companies.
The economics of large-scale nuclear plants that can be imported from the West is unattractive.
Electricity system in India has envisaged a combination of renewables and storage to get to zero emissions.
These things could change if SMR technology gets on a time trend of declining prices.
If it works well then firms in India will see these new SMRs as components that can fit in their business planning.
An SMR is just a cylinder, 23-metre-high and 4.5-metre-wide, which generates 50 MW, which could be put in the corner of a factory.
