Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Ajit Kumar Mohanty has put the private sector's anticipated share of India's 100 GW nuclear capacity goal at roughly 30 GW, with associated investment projected at around ₹7.5 lakh crore by the 2047 target date. With roughly 9 GW of nuclear-generating capacity already in place, the country has set a considerably larger installed base as its target by 2047, a programme carried out through state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), which runs 24 reactors across its portfolio.
Mr. Mohanty, who also heads the Department of Atomic Energy, told a news channel that new legislation had been enacted to open the nuclear sector to private companies, and he anticipated that within five years, at least a few such players would be operating reactors. Projections place roughly 30 GW of capacity from that source by the year 2047. Generating roughly ₹25 crore in costs for every megawatt of capacity, he noted.
Speaking at the 36th convocation of Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, in Ranchi, Mr. Mohanty outlined India's intent to push nuclear power growth beyond its historically public-sector-driven framework, a shift that would call for both considerable investment and advances in technology. The SHANTI Act — formally the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India — took effect in December 2025 and, in his reading, marked a shift in the country's nuclear governance framework, opening participation in the sector to both private and public entities while reserving the most sensitive operations for state control.
Construction timelines for nuclear power plants generally fall between five and seven years, with the final duration shaped by the type of technology involved, the pace of regulatory approvals, and what the specific construction work demands, he noted. Reactor technologies, fuel supply arrangements, land requirements, and potential partnership structures — among them joint ventures with NPCIL and overseas technology providers — are all under active assessment by private companies, Mr. Mohanty noted.
Falling under the Department of Atomic Energy as a state-owned enterprise, NPCIL runs a fleet of 24 reactors whose installed capacity totals roughly 9 GW. Seventeen more reactors, collectively rated at roughly 13 GW of capacity, are progressing through different phases of development.
Pricing of electricity from new nuclear developments would weigh on decisions by both investors and power buyers, he noted, adding that India was also examining small modular reactors — alongside its larger plants — to meet the distinct energy demands of industries where power consumption runs particularly high. Steel, cement, and comparable heavy industries depend on power supplies that are both plentiful and consistent. Reactor design, regulatory frameworks, and the commercial model in place would each shape whether SMRs prove viable for meeting captive power needs at individual facilities or across clusters of industrial units, he noted.
Compact reactors, the AEC chief noted, hold the potential to extend nuclear power into a wider set of applications while giving industries an additional pathway to low-carbon, reliable electricity. Alongside efforts to expand overall output, a three-stage programme guides the country's nuclear development with the long-term aim of drawing more extensively on domestic fuel reserves, thorium in particular.
Uranium-powered reactors form the foundation of what the first stage relies upon. Plutonium-239 becomes recoverable through spent-fuel reprocessing, Mr. Mohanty noted, with the same reactors also serving as power generators during normal operation. Plutonium extracted through reprocessing has been earmarked for deployment within the second stage, a component built around fast breeder reactor principles.
Mr. Mohanty noted that this stage serves a dual purpose: building up reserves of fissile material while laying the groundwork for thorium to eventually enter the fuel cycle — a process in which, during the third stage, thorium would be chemically transformed into a fissile substance suitable for use as nuclear fuel. Without a prior conversion process to yield a fissile material, thorium has no direct path to service as fuel in a conventional reactor. The three-stage programme, Mr. Mohanty explained, was built to tackle that technological hurdle and, over time, to underpin a nuclear fuel cycle drawing more heavily on the country's own domestic reserves.
Along India's coastline, monazite-bearing beach sands hold the country's thorium wealth in abundance, with coastal states such as Odisha and Andhra Pradesh sitting atop deposits of beach-sand minerals from which monazite can be separated and its thorium content recovered through suitable processing methods. According to him, roughly a quarter of the world's thorium deposits are held within India's borders.
In April 2026, the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu — a facility conceived and constructed through domestic engineering — reached first criticality, the point at which a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction takes hold. The development places India's atomic energy effort at the threshold of its second phase within the three-part development plan. Once fully operational, India would join a narrow tier of countries that have brought commercial fast breeder reactors into service — a threshold Russia alone has crossed to date.
Nuclear power generation in India traces its roots to 1969, and the nation has since cultivated homegrown proficiency spanning reactor design, construction, and the day-to-day running and upkeep of those facilities. Each of the three nations — Russia, France, and the United States — has built its own distinct nuclear technology base, opening pathways for joint ventures with India, provided those arrangements satisfy Indian regulatory standards and the conditions specific to each project, he noted.
Kudankulam — where Russian reactor technology underpins an operating plant — stands as one illustration of that bilateral arrangement, and Mohanty noted that broadening such ties could open pathways for India to draw on a wider range of reactor designs and engineering expertise as its nuclear fleet grows. Bilateral agreements covering the peaceful use of nuclear energy now bind India to 18 partner nations, a tally that points to widening international acceptance of the country's atomic programme.
