new delhi, July 8 -- Indian Oil Corp. Ltd is preparing a new strategy to build small modular reactors (SMR) and large nuclear power plants in the country, chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney said. India's largest oil refiner and marketer is taking fresh look at nuclear diversification, Sahney said in an interview, though the company had earlier tied up with Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd (NPCIL) for the venture. He did not reveal plans for the technology partner. India's Bharat SMR (BSR) is being designed with a capacity of 200 MWe, while a smaller 55 MWe variant is also under development. However, Indian Oil did not participate in NPCIL's recent bids to set up such reactors for captive use. Indian Oil's large refineries consume as much power as produced by BSRs, Sahney said, prompting it to consider building them. "We have not participated in NPCIL's request for proposal (RFP) process, but we are looking into it in a renewed manner.It was 10 years back when we tied up with NPCIL. But now there is a renewed energy to it," he said. Indian Oil's focus on nuclear power comes at a time the government plans to set up 22 GW of nuclear power by 2032 and 100 GW by 2047, up from the current 8.7 GW. State-run major NTPC Ltd set up a subsidiary called NTPC Parmanu Urja Nigam Ltd earlier this year. With the government planning to open up the space for private players, several conglomerates and renewable energy majors are keen on this space. Last month, Mint reported that companies including Reliance Industries, Adani Group, Greenko, Vedanta, HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd, JSW Group and Hindalco Industries have responded to NPCIL's RFP to set up two units of 220-Mwe pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) BSRs. The Union budget for FY26 announced a Rs.20,000-crore Nuclear Energy Mission for research and development of SMRs. The full budget for FY25 in July also proposed the government partnering with the private sector to develop SMRs, while the interim budget in February announced funding of Rs.1 trillion for R&D in this space. A report by SBICAPS in April had said that although nuclear energy provides high-quality, reliable power at low operational cost, historically, these advantages have been overshadowed by concerns over safety, capital cost, and fuel supply. htc...