{"id":237351,"date":"2023-04-11T19:13:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T13:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=237351"},"modified":"2023-05-04T14:19:52","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T08:49:52","slug":"small-green-future-that-india-needs-more-nuclear-power-generation-is-not-in-doubt-but-it-should-rely-less-on-big-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/small-green-future-that-india-needs-more-nuclear-power-generation-is-not-in-doubt-but-it-should-rely-less-on-big-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Small & Green Future – That India needs more nuclear power generation is not in doubt. But it should rely less on big plants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S<\/strong>ource<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cSmall & Green Future – That India needs more nuclear power generation is not in doubt. But it should rely less on big plants\u201d <\/b>published in\u00a0The Times of India <\/b>on\u00a011th April 2023<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS \u2013 3: Energy.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: About the need for small modular reactors(SMRs).<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: India, by 2047, aims to produce 9% of its electricity from nuclear power, up from the current 3%. By 2031, installed nuclear power capacity is set to increase from 6,780 MW to 22,480 MW with 20 new nuclear plants. In that process, ten new reactors were approved recently.<\/p>\n

About the nuclear power plants around the world<\/h2>\n

Rich countries that have had 20 years of nuclear power generation. A 2019 IAEA report of nuclear plants\u2019 age-profile highlighted the challenges of \u2018nuclear fade\u2019.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: Nuclear fade means the nations are giving up on nuclear power as plants age and costs rise.<\/em><\/p>\n

About 83% of plants across Europe are over 30 years old, in the US more than 90% are over 30. T<\/span>hough nuclear plants had licences for decades more, several retired early. This stalls the transition to non-carbon energy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast, almost 80% of China\u2019s plants are less than 10 years old; the corresponding number for India is 40%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: <\/strong>Nuclear Energy: Status, Advantages and Concerns \u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What does India need to do while planning nuclear power plants?<\/h2>\n

India should move away from big plants and plans small modular reactors (SMRs), which are typically under 300MW in capacity.<\/p>\n

The major advantages of SMRs are a)<\/strong> though SMRs only generate a third of a nuclear plant\u2019s power, many can be built since the smaller investment is easier to mobilise, b)<\/strong> SMRs are reportedly safer in design and simpler to construct and require much less land. They are therefore easier propositions to sell to locals, c)<\/strong> They could reduce costs by enabling prefabrication of reactor units in factories, which would yield scale economies, and d)<\/strong> They could also be installed in existing sites of coal-based power plants that are to be phased out in the country\u2019s transition to net zero.<\/p>\n

According to the IAEA, SMRs\u2019 economic viability in operational settings is not proven. But India\u2019s huge electricity demand, need for non-carbon energy, net zero commitment can be aided significantly with SMRs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: [Yojana October Summary] Energy Security: Nuclear Power \u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cSmall & Green Future – That India needs more nuclear power generation is not in doubt. But it should rely less on big plants\u201d published in\u00a0The Times of India on\u00a011th April 2023. Syllabus: GS \u2013 3: Energy. Relevance: About the need for small modular reactors(SMRs). News: India, by… Continue reading Small & Green Future – That India needs more nuclear power generation is not in doubt. But it should rely less on big plants<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10489,10496],"class_list":["post-237351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-nuclear-power","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}