Can SMRs help India achieve net zero? (GS Paper 3, Environment)
Context:
- The world’s quest to decarbonise is guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7: “to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”.
- Small modular reactors can be helpful to India in this regard.
Background:
- Since the world still depends on fossil fuels for 82% of its energy supply, decarbonising the power sector is critical; the share of electricity in final energy consumption will also increase by 80%-150% by 2050.
- The recent uptick in coal consumption in Europe, despite the increase in solar and wind power, suggests that reliable, 24/7 low-carbon electricity resources are critical to ensure the deep decarbonisation of power generation, along with grid stability and energy security.
What are the challenges of decarbonisation?
- The transition from coal-fired power generation to clean energy poses major challenges.
- There is a widespread consensus among policymakers in several countries that solar and wind energy alone will not suffice to provide affordable energy for everyone.
- According to the International Energy Agency, the demand for critical minerals like lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements, required for clean-energy production technologies, is likely to increase by up to 3.5 times by 2030.
Global challenges:
- The large capital investments to develop new mines and processing facilities.
- The environmental and social impacts of developing several new mines and plants in China, Indonesia, Africa, and South America within a short time span.
- The top three mineral-producing and mineral-processing nations control 50-100% of the current global extraction and processing capacities, pose geopolitical and other risks.
What are the issues with nuclear power?
- Nuclear power plants (NPPs) generate 10% of the world’s electricity and help it avoid 180 billion cubic metres of natural gas demand and 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.
- NPPs are efficient users of land and their grid integration costs are lower than those associated with variable renewable energy (VRE) sources because NPPs generate power 24x7 in all kinds of weather.
- Nuclear power also provides valuable co-benefits like high-skill jobs in technology, manufacturing, and operations.
SMRs:
- The conventional NPPs have generally suffered from time and cost overruns.
- As an alternative, several countries are developing small modular reactors (SMRs), nuclear reactors with a maximum capacity of 300 MW to complement conventional NPPs.
- SMRs can be installed in decommissioned thermal power plant sites by repurposing existing infrastructure, thus sparing the host country from having to acquire more land and/or displace people beyond the existing site boundary.
What are the advantages of SMRs?
- SMRs are designed with a smaller core damage frequency (the likelihood that an accident will damage the nuclear fuel) and source term (a measure of radioactive contamination) compared to conventional NPPs.
- They also include enhanced seismic isolation for more safety.
- SMR designs are also simpler than those of conventional NPPs and include several passive safety features, resulting in a lower potential for the uncontrolled release of radioactive materials into the environment.
- The amount of spent nuclear fuel stored in an SMR project will also be lower than that in a conventional NPP.
Scope in India:
- SMRs can be safely installed and operated at several brownfield sites that may not meet the more stringent zoning requirements for conventional NPPs.
- The power-plant organisation can also undertake community work, as the Nuclear Power Corporation did in Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, before the first unit was built.
- Accelerating the deployment of SMRs under international safeguards, by implementing a coal-to-nuclear transition at existing thermal power-plant sites, will take India closer to net-zero and improve energy security because uranium resources are not as concentrated as reserves of critical minerals.
- Most land-based SMR designs require low-enriched uranium, which can be supplied by all countries that possess uranium mines and facilities for such enrichment if the recipient facility is operating according to international standards.
Cost factor:
- Since SMRs are mostly manufactured in a factory and assembled on site, the potential for time and cost overruns is also lower.
- Since SMRs are designed to operate for more than 40 years, the levelised cost of electricity is $60-90 per MWh. The figure is expected to drop rapidly after 2035, by when the SMRs ordered by a number of east-European countries from NuScale and GE Hitachi are expected to come online.
- The costs will decline steepest for India when reputed companies manufacture SMRs. This at least was the reason SMRs were included in the U.S.-India joint statement after Prime Minister Modi met U.S. President in June 2023.
How can SMRs be integrated with the national grid?
- India’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA) projects that the generation capacity of coal-based thermal power plants (TPPs) in India must be increased to 259,000 MW by 2032 from the current 212,000 MW, while enhancing the generation capacity of VRE sources to 486,000 MW from 130,000 MW.
- Integrating this power from VRE sources with the national grid will require additional energy storage, to the tune of 47,000 MW/236 GWh with batteries and 27,000 MW from hydroelectric facilities.
- The CEA also projects that TPPs will provide more than half of the electricity generated in India by 2031-2032 while VRE sources and NPPs will contribute 35% and 4.4%, respectively.
What are the legal and regulatory changes required?
- The Atomic Energy Act will need to be amended to allow the private sector to set up SMRs.
- To ensure safety, security, and safeguards, control of nuclear fuel and radioactive waste must continue to lie with the Government of India.
- The government will also have to enact a law to create an independent, empowered regulatory board with the expertise and capacity to oversee every stage of the nuclear power generation cycle.
- The security around SMRs must remain under government control, while the Nuclear Power Corporation can operate privately-owned SMRs during the hand-holding process.
- Finally, the Department of Atomic Energy must improve the public perception of nuclear power in India by better disseminating comprehensive environmental and public health data of the civilian reactors, which are operating under international safeguards, in India.
