New Delhi, Dec. 23 -- With the passage of a law that not only opens the door for private participation in India's nuclear power industry but also promotes it, the government hopes to meet its target of 100GW in generation capacity by 2047. Currently, it accounts for a mere 2% of our grid capacity, and given India's demand projection for 2047 and the electricity required to meet it, that goal implies a share of 5% by then.

Today's tiny share is explainable. Nuclear plants have a notoriously long gestation period before they can supply power. They often face resistance on the basis of safety concerns, with accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima embedded in public memory.

And India's indigenous technology has made little progress, with ...