By Shivli Singh
While India awaits the success of AI-driven data centers, the government is trying to ascertain whether smaller, innovative nuclear technologies such as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) can power the next wave of electric growth in a clean, sustainable fashion.
These reactors, which are designed to be safer and more flexible, as well as comparable to conventional nuclear power, are being considered for baseload power for the country’s digital infrastructure expansion.
SMRs are viewed as potentially critical to India’s clean energy mix, filling gaps that could complement solar and wind power while providing a steady stream of power for high-demand areas tapping into Indian efforts around cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
They are modular and could be rolled out relatively quickly, theoretically allowing them to find a market in industrial zones or somewhere a huge nuclear plant would never fly.
Analysts have proposed that government support and regulatory reform could work to incentivize private sector investment in SMR projects. Given that a large portion of India’s nuclear ecosystem lies in government enterprise, this transition could facilitate leveraging institutional scale for deployment and attract investment for HzLRs.
Energy experts believe that SMRs will facilitate the transition away from coal while maintaining grid reliability, thus supporting India’s trajectory to achieve its net-zero emissions policy.
Along with long-term energy planning , not only could they power the island’s AI data ecosystem, but they may also mark India’s position in the world as a participant in renewable energy innovation.