Discuss whether India's long-term clean-energy strategy should include fusion alongside fission and renewables.

Nuclear fusion joins light nuclei such as deuterium and tritium to release energy. It needs about 100 million °C, while all of today's plants split (fission) uranium [1]. Pranos Fusion, described as India's first fusion power company, now aims to finish its PRANIK tokamak blueprint by 2027 [1]. Fusion deserves a place in India's strategy as a long-term research hedge, but it cannot replace fission and renewables as a near-term source of power.

Case for including fusion

• Cleaner process: D-T fusion produces inert helium, and there is no runaway chain reaction [1].
• Existing base: DAE–IPR has more than three decades of fusion work, moving from ADITYA to ADITYA-U and then SST-1 [3]. SST-1 is a superconducting tokamak designed to hold plasma for up to 1000 seconds [2].
• Industrial spin-offs: As an ITER partner, India has worked with domestic industry on "first-of-a-kind" components. This builds skills in magnets and cryogenics that are useful even if fusion arrives late [4].
• Help with fission waste: India told the IAEA World Fusion Energy Group it is interested in fusion-fission hybrids that could burn up radioactive waste [3].
• Private entry is now legal: The SHANTI Act, 2025 allows licensed private companies into nuclear energy and gives AERB statutory status [5][6].

Case for caution

• Timeline: Pranos admits that electricity is "a further step away" and that fusion power "would be expensive now" [1].
• Opportunity cost: The 100 GW nuclear-by-2047 goal and Net Zero 2070 target depend on technologies that can be deployed now [5]. Moving scarce money and physicists to fusion could slow solar, storage and fission reactors.
• Gaps in regulation: SHANTI's licensing is written for reactors and the fuel cycle. It is unclear how tokamaks, tritium handling and liability bands (₹100–3,000 crore) apply to fusion [5][6].

Balanced strategy

Now–2040: Renewables + storage + fission (3-stage programme)  → decarbonisation
Parallel: Fusion R&D (IPR, ITER, private start-ups)            → long-term option

Fig: Fusion as a parallel research track, not a replacement

• Count fusion as R&D investment, not as part of near-term climate targets.
• AERB should notify a fusion-specific licensing category under SHANTI.
• Combine IPR's expertise with private and international capital through public–private partnerships.

Fusion should therefore be part of the strategy but kept to a separate track: renewables and fission meet this decade's demand, and fusion is developed as a strategic option for later. This approach keeps India's path to SDG 7 (affordable, clean energy) and Net Zero 2070 realistic, while keeping a seat in the next energy frontier.