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Within the atomic and nuclear power community, there is much excitement over India’s plans to deploy small indigenous reactors in order to reach net-zero emissions by the current target year of 2070.

This is part of the 220-megawatt Bharat Small Reactor (BSR) that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman had unveiled in her budget speech in July.

The announcement officially changed India’s nuclear policy because the Atomic Energy Act of 1962 did not allow private companies to participate in generating nuclear power.

The BSR reactor technology and scale are modelled along the small modular reactors (SMR).

India currently has 23 reactors operating in eight nuclear plants across the country. However, the Kalpakkam observatory, located about 75 km from Chennai, is India’s first focus for the new Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor programme, which will contribute to BSRs.

What are small reactors?

Small modular reactors (SMR) refer to a newly developed and upcoming class of small land-based nuclear fission reactors, which can be built and fabricated in specialized factories but can be assembled on site.

These can provide an electrical output anywhere from 5 megawatts to 300 megawatts per day, approximately a third of the power generated by conventional nuclear plants.

How Bharat Small Reactors differ from Small Modular Reactors?

Small reactors that will be a part of the BSR programme are different from SMRs. While they are indeed small in size compared to traditional fission reactors associated with ones like Fukushima and Chernobyl, they do not come pre-fabricated.

The Indian programme will base its design on the existing plant at Kalpakkam, the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS).

Advantages of smaller reactors

THE advantage of smaller reactors when compared to traditional ones is the smaller exclusion zone—that is, the radius of distance to be maintained from the plant in case of an accident. While for reactors like Chernobyl, this was 30km, newer, smaller reactors including those that will be built in India will have exclusion zones of 2.5km, 1km, or even half a kilometre.

The technology has been well established with a functioning reactor in India for at least 30-40 years, thus increasing the country’s experience with the design and its features.

There are other “passive” safety features as well: there is no need for backup electricity to pour in water as the reactors will automatically flood in case of overheating.

However, renewables continue to have the cost advantage. Fission-based atomic energy has a long way to go to be as ubiquitous and affordable as solar is today.

Tech behind Bharat Small Reactors

The reactor at Kalpakkam is a pressurised heavy-water reactor (PHWR). It uses heavy water—oxygen with the hydrogen isotope deuterium instead of hydrogen—as a coolant, and typically uranium for fuel. The heavy water prevents boiling and also enables more economical use of uranium.

The smaller size of the reactor also results in comparatively less nuclear waste generation.

While private companies will come in and construct the reactors as per the NPCIL design approved by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), they are not involved in the design of it or in the disposal of nuclear waste, which the government will continue to be responsible for.

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