In the context of India's Net-Zero target by 2070, assess the role that Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Micro Modular Reactors (MMRs) can play alongside renewables in India's energy transition.

India's Net-Zero-2070 pathway needs firm, low-carbon power to back a renewables-led grid. SMRs (up to 300 MW) and MMRs (typically sub-10 MW) offer exactly this, and the Union Budget 2025-26's Nuclear Energy Mission has made them a formal pillar of the transition [1].

Complementarity with renewables

• Firm clean baseload: near-zero operational emissions with round-the-clock output, offsetting solar-wind intermittency and easing the storage burden.
• Hard-to-abate industry: 220 MW Bharat Small Reactors are offered for captive use by steel, aluminium and other metals industries [2].
• Green hydrogen linkage: BARC's HTGR (up to 5 MWth) supplies high-temperature process heat for hydrogen, reinforcing the National Green Hydrogen Mission [3].
• Siting flexibility: modular units suit remote, grid-weak and industrial locations where large plants are unviable.

The enabling ecosystem

• ₹20,000 crore allocation; at least five indigenous SMRs by 2033 and 100 GWe nuclear by 2047 [1].
• Indigenous designs — BSMR-200 and SMR-55 — under development at BARC [3].
• The SHANTI Act, 2025, replacing the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and CLNDA, 2010, permits private and foreign participation and caps operator liability, removing the old supplier-liability deterrent [4].
• Private capital is responding: the Fairwood Nuclear–SK Securities agreement (June 2026) for SMR/MMR project development and financing [5].

Limits to that role

• Long gestation — first units only around 2033, so little contribution to 2030 NDC milestones.
• Cost per MW remains above utility-scale solar; viability depends on serial, factory-style manufacture.
• Fuel supply, spent-fuel management and specialised manpower remain bottlenecks.
• Public acceptance and siting concerns persist after Kudankulam-type experiences.

SMRs and MMRs are therefore best assessed not as substitutes for renewables but as their stabiliser — supplying the firm, dispatchable clean power that solar, wind and storage alone cannot yet guarantee. Timely regulatory operationalisation, indigenous supply-chain scale-up and transparent safety communication will decide the outcome. Delivered on schedule, they can anchor the firm-power leg of India's Viksit Bharat 2047 and Net-Zero 2070 commitments.