Stats IQ: India’s Nuclear Power

India’s Nuclear Power

• India’s Nuclear Energy: Nuclear power is an efficient way of boiling water to create steam, this steam is used to turn turbines, which creates electricity. Nuclear energy is the 5^th largest source of electricity for India.
• Nuclear Power in India: India has a largely indigenous nuclear power programme.
  • India also stands at 7^th position in terms of the number of nuclear reactors.
  • There are 22 Nuclear Power Reactors operational in India. Among these 18 reactors are Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) and 4 are Light Water Reactors (LWRs).
  • India has the Asia’s first nuclear reactor is the Apsara Research Reactor situated in Mumbai.
  • Recently, the Central Government has approved setting up of 10 indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors of 700 MW in Karnataka, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
    • This will increase India’s installed nuclear power capacity from 6780 MW to 22480 MW.
  • World’s first thorium based nuclear plant “Bhavni” using Uranium-233 is being set up at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu. It is going to be entirely indigenous and the first-of-its-kind.
  • Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu is the largest nuclear power plant in India.

India’s Energy Profile

• Non-renewable energy:
  • India’s coal generation and oil imports are going to peak in 2030, while gas imports will double around the same time.
  • At present, India accounts for just over 10% of global coal consumption, after China which accounts for 55 %.
  • India became the world’s second‐largest coal producer in 2021 (in energy terms), overtaking Australia and Indonesia.
• Renewable energy targets:
  • India is working towards achieving 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030.
  • India stands 4th globally in Renewable Energy Installed Capacity (including Large Hydro), 4th in Wind Power capacity & 4th in Solar Power capacity.
  • So far, a total of 172.72 GW of capacity from non-fossil fuel sources has been installed in India. This includes:
• 119.09 GW Renewable Energy
• 46.85 GW Large Hydro
• 6.78 GW Nuclear Power capacity
• Future of Energy Demand in India:
  • India will become the world’s most populous country by 2025.
  • Combined with the twin forces of urbanisation and industrialization, this underpins rapid growth in energy demand, which rises by more than 3% per year. It shall be the largest increase in energy demand of any country.

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