United States Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday expressed strong admiration for India and said Washington is keen to expand energy cooperation with New Delhi in areas including natural gas, coal, nuclear energy, and clean cooking fuels.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, on Tuesday, expressed concerns over the delay in introducing key legislation related to nuclear energy, despite grand promises made in the 2025-26 Budget.
The workshop was held in the context of India's expanding energy demand and long-term clean energy goals, including the ambition to achieve 100 GW of nuclear power capacity by 2047 under the Nuclear Energy Mission.
Union Minister for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh reaffirmed on Wednesday the Centre's commitment to nuclear energy expansion, safety protocols, and private sector participation in the nuclear power sector.
The Union Minister further announced the launch of a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) R&D Mission, with the objective of developing five SMRs by 2033.
In scientific terms, the energy released from the core or the nucleus of an atom is called nuclear energy. In the real world, nuclear energy is simply ‘organised chaos’, an oxymoron to the very core.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Saturday suggested countries should increase nuclear power generation. He marked nuclear power generation as very important for national security and warned against the shutdown of power plants.
While the capital cost of establishing nuclear power plants may seem high, the combined capital and operation and management costs make nuclear energy the most economic option.
According to their projection, the 850-MW supply can displace an annual consumption of around 1.4 million tons of coal or 930,000 liters of oil.
Nuclear power stations are expensive to build but cheap to operate. The economy of power generation is analysed according to “Levelised Cost of Electricity” (LCOE). LCOE accounts for the overall building cost, cost of operation and the cost of waste management in respect to the overall electricity output of the station over its lifetime.
