The cost of setting up small modular reactors (SMRs) ranges from ₹320 crore for a 5 megawatt thermal (MWth) High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGCR) for green hydrogen applications to ₹7,000 crore for two units of the 55 megawatt electric (MWe) Small Modular Reactor (SMR-55), Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh said in a written reply in Parliament last week.
In between these two, the cost of setting up a 220 megawatt electric (MWe) Bharat Small Modular Reactor (BSMR-200) works out to ₹5,960 crore, he said. The minister also said the estimated construction time for these SMRs is five to six years after financial approval is in place.
SMRs are factory-built power plants positioned for captive power for energy-intensive industries, unlike large grid-scale nuclear stations. Under the Nuclear Energy Mission, the government aims to develop and operationalise at least five indigenous SMRs by 2033. The three SMR designs are being developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
The per-unit cost of the BSMR-200 and SMR-55 works out to about ₹27 crore per MW and around ₹64 crore per MW, respectively. For comparison, India’s 10 fleet-mode 700 MWe pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) were sanctioned at about ₹15 crore per MW in 2017, which at current prices would be closer to ₹23 crore per MW, said Rohit Vijay, associate fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP).
“The higher cost per MW is largely due to the loss of economies of scale. Many of the same systems, such as containment, control rooms, safety and security infrastructure, licensing, and regulatory compliance, are required regardless of whether a reactor is 55 MW or 700 MW,” he said.
The HTGCR, on the other hand, is being built to demonstrate the use of high-temperature nuclear heat for hydrogen production by coupling the reactor with thermochemical processes. “BARC has been developing both the Copper–Chlorine (Cu–Cl) and Iodine–Sulphur (I–S) thermochemical cycles for this purpose, which require substantially higher process temperatures than India’s current fleet of power reactors can provide,” Vijay said.
At about 2.4 per cent of the total estimated cost of the three reactor projects, this is best viewed as a technology demonstrator rather than a commercial energy project, he said, adding that the real economic test will come when India scales this technology to much larger commercial reactors capable of producing hydrogen at industrial volumes.
For all three reactors, in-principle approval for engineering and construction has been received. Tarapur in Maharashtra has been approved by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) as the site for the BSMR-200 and SMR-55. The proposal for administrative and financial sanction for the BSMR-200 has been cleared by the AEC.
