Context

Recently, the first-ever Nuclear Energy Summit 2024 was held in Brussels (Belgium). 

Nuclear Energy Summit 2024: Key Highlights

• The Nuclear Energy Summit 2024 was co-chaired by the Prime Minister of Belgium and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 
• The continuing crisis at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the first nuclear facility to have been caught in a dangerous armed conflict, has also been a source of grave concern.

About Nuclear Energy Summit

• Background: The UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai (UAE) highlighted the indispensable role of nuclear energy in meeting climate goals. 
  • The declaration signed by 22 world leaders mentioned the need to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050. 
• Need: The Nuclear Energy Summit, an initiative in collaboration with the IAEA’s ‘Atoms4Netzero’ programme, is part of the multilateral approach to decarbonisation. 

About Nuclear Energy

• It is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. 
• Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. 

Advantages of Nuclear Energy

• Minimal Carbon Footprint: Nuclear power emits four times less carbon than solar farms or other renewable sources such as wind, hydropower, and geothermal. 
• Uninterrupted Energy Supply: Nuclear power has perennial availability unlike wind or solar which are season or time-dependent. 
• Ease to Use: Nuclear power plants (NPP) also have low operating costs, smaller land imprint and a longer life cycle compared to all the other renewable energy sources.

Disadvantages of Nuclear Energy

• Nuclear Disaster: Nuclear fission reactions are highly radioactive and radiation leaks from reactors can prove fatal for human beings. 
  • Example: Radiation leaks in Chernobyl, 1986 and disaster in Fukushima, 2011. 
• Capital Intensive: Nuclear power plants are capital intensive and recent nuclear builds have suffered major cost overruns. 
  • Example: The V.C. Summer nuclear project in South Carolina (U.S.), costs rose so sharply that the project was abandoned after an expenditure of over US$ 9 billion.
• Availability of Cheap Alternatives: Solar and Wind energy are cheap and effective alternatives as they promise to provide electricity between INR 2-4/unit. 
• Waste Generation: Nuclear power plants produce highly radioactive waste that must be carefully managed and stored for many years. 
  • Its waste is extremely toxic and harmful to the environment. 
• Exhaustible: Materials used to generate nuclear energy are exhaustible. 
  • Example: Uranium

Concerns and Challenges Related to the Nuclear Energy

• No Significant Contribution by Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs): In spite of technical MDBs and private investors have not made any significant contribution to the industry. 
• No Funding by the World Bank: The World Bank has not provided financing for a nuclear project since its $40 million loan to Italy in 1959. 
• Others: Nuclear reactors require high investments and technology base, take years to build, and have to operate under a variety of regulations and constraints, making them unattractive for countries wanting to quickly ramp up their electricity generation in an affordable manner.

India’s Nuclear Energy Programme: Historic Background

• India’s first commercial Nuclear Power Plant in Pahalgarh, Tarapur offers reliable energy at 2/kWh lower than solar power tariffs. 
• At Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, a newer power plant offers electricity in the range of 4-6/kWh comparable to coal-fired thermal power plants. 
• Despite its versatile nature, nuclear power contributes only 1.6% of the total renewable energy mix in India. 
  • Stigma, weaponization risk, radiation leak, regulation, high upfront cost, and long project overruns are the reasons for low adoption rate of nuclear energy.
•  Indian Atomic Energy Commission: It is created by the Atomic Energy Act of 1948, ‘to provide for the development and control of atomic energy and purposes connected therewith’. 
• Target: India’s ongoing efforts to triple its current nuclear power capacity by 2030, and the aim was for nuclear energy to have a “significant share in the electricity mix of India by the year 2047”. 

Current Scenario for Nuclear Energy

• High Adoption: Two key motives for the large-scale adoption of nuclear power as the base load energy source are technology and finance. 
• Recent Developments in Nuclear Technology: It includes Small Modular Reactors (SMR), radiation proofing in existing plants, and extended fuel cycles, have the potential to substantially mitigate nuclear-related risks. 
  • The role of technical advancements in reducing carbon emissions is highlighted by an IAEA study, which predicts that while existing technologies will play a significant role, by 2050, half of carbon reductions will come from technologies currently in the prototype (an experimental) stage.

Need To Do

• Reassessment of Finance Policies: There is a need to reassess nuclear financing policies to accommodate private capital or blended finance models.
• Need for Cooperative Model: There are successful financial practices that can be followed.
  • Examples: In the cooperative funding models of France, South Korea, Russia, and the U.K., a group of investors raise credit from the market and take full responsibility for project delivery. 
  • In Finland, large power plants have been funded by multiple private companies since the 1970s using a cooperative finance model called ‘Mankala’. 
    • Under this model, companies jointly own energy producers and share the costs of building and operating plants. 
• Market Support: Financial creativity and market support with low interest rates are required.