New Delhi, Feb. 2 -- Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has committed to developing at least 100 GW of nuclear energy by 2047. In her Union budget for 2025-26, she also proposed setting up a Nuclear Energy Mission with an outlay of Rs.20,000 crore. The mission will focus on research and development of small modular reactors (SMRs), with an aim to have at least five homegrown SMRs running by 2033. Small modular reactors are small nuclear fission reactors that can be manufactured in factories and then installed elsewhere, and are typically of a smaller capacity than conventional nuclear reactors.

Currently, nuclear plants account for 1.8% of India's installed power capacity of 462 gigawatt (GW). Much of the policy focus in recent years ha...