Nuclear Energy Mission
Topic: Energy Resources of India: Conventional and Non-conventional · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Nuclear Energy Mission is a government plan announced in the Union Budget 2025-26. Its goal is 100 GW of nuclear power capacity by 2047. It sets aside ₹20,000 crore for small modular reactors (SMRs). These are small reactors of up to about 300 MWe, built from parts made in factories. The mission aims to have at least five SMRs of Indian design by 2033. It matters because nuclear power gives steady electricity without burning coal. That supports India's goal of net zero by 2070. A 2025 law also opened civil nuclear power to private companies (verify current).
Example
The mission backs Bharat Small Reactors. These are being designed from India's tested 220 MWe pressurised heavy water reactor. That is the same kind of reactor that runs at stations such as Rawatbhata in Rajasthan and Kaiga in Karnataka.
Don't confuse with
- Three-stage nuclear power programme: Homi Bhabha's plan from the 1950s. It moves from natural uranium, to plutonium in fast breeders, and finally to thorium. The mission is a recent capacity and funding target, not a new fuel plan.
- National Green Hydrogen Mission (2023): this mission is about making hydrogen with renewable power. It has nothing to do with nuclear reactors.
Related concepts
- Nuclear energy
- Uranium
- Thorium
- Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
- Tarapur Atomic Power Station
- Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant
- Jaitapur nuclear project
- Three-stage nuclear power programme
- Pressurised heavy water reactor
- Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor