PARLIAMENT QUESTION: NUCLEAR ENERGY MISSION

• Nuclear Energy Mission (NEM): ₹20,000 crore Union Budget 2025–26 initiative for R&D, design and deployment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
• Aims at operationalising ≥5 indigenously developed SMRs by 2033 and 100 GW of nuclear capacity by 2047 as part of India's energy transition.
• Signals a structural shift: SMRs (compact, factory-built, <300 MWe) replacing the legacy reliance on large PHWRs, with proposed private-sector entry via amendments to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and CLND Act, 2010.
• UPSC relevance: cuts across GS-III (energy, S&T), GS-II (legislation), and environment (clean transition).