Indigenous pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) are emerging as the preferred pick for new entrants into India’s civil nuclear power sector due to the established supply chain and good ecosystem, as the country opens the tightly regulated strategic sector to private players.The country has an ambitious target of scaling up the domestic civil nuclear capacity to 100 gigawatt-electric by 2047.At a panel discussion at the BloombergNEF Summit in New Delhi, representatives from NTPC, Adani Atomic Energy and Jindal Steel said that existing 700 megawatt-electric (MWe) PHWR technology could be a good start to scale up the capacity in initial phase given the availability of established design standards, a mature domestic supply chain and an existing ecosystem of vendors and expertise.NTPC’s capacity target is 30 gigawatts electric (GWe) while Adani group’s target is 10 GWe and that of Jindal Steel is 18 GWe in coming years.According to them, foreign reactor technologies and small modular reactors (SMRs) could play a role at a later stage as the sector matures.The discussion took place nearly a week after India released draft rules of SHANTI Act, laying out the regulatory framework for a broader nuclear power ecosystem, including private participation, captive generation, licensing, safety oversight and nuclear liability.‘Established ecosystem of PHWRs’Vivek Sharma, Business Head of Adani Atomic Energy, said the major challenges facing the sector are the availability of a robust supply chain and the lack of standardised reactor designs.Story continues below this ad“We have an advantage in India that we have 700MWe design, which is standard, approved, operational, and has regulatory blessings. And most importantly relative supply-chain in India. So it’s almost indigenized, 90- 95% indigenized,” Sharma said.He said India could leverage this established ecosystem by deploying 700 MWe PHWRs in fleet mode, followed by PWRs.However, he said that PHWRs alone would not be sufficient to achieve the country’s target of 100 GWe of nuclear capacity by 2047.“So we need to have other technologies, including BWR, as well as at some point of time SMR. But in both cases, the key will be that they need to come to India and start looking at local items as much as possible. Because the cost will matter a lot in India and for making any commercial sense, the consumer has to buy, it has to commit a price which is acceptable,” he added.Story continues below this adAccording to Sharma, global reactor technologies, including BWRs and SMRs, would need to maximise localisation in India to remain commercially viable, given the importance of cost in determining the competitiveness and affordability of nuclear power.Jindal Steel in talks with Rosatom, EDFNaveen Ahlawat, President and Head of Sustainability and Decarbonisation at Jindal Steel Limited, also said the company plans to go with 700 MWe PHWRs in the initial phase, given the technology’s established supply chain and ecosystem.Other technologies could be considered in subsequent phases as greater clarity emerges around supply chains, regulatory approvals and standardisation, he said.Ahlawat said the company is already in advanced talks with Russia’s Rosatom and France’s EDF for potential deployment in later phases.Story continues below this adHe maintained that while the company is clear about deploying 700 MWe PHWRs in the initial phase, the choice of technologies for subsequent phases will become clearer as the sector evolves, particularly with greater clarity onregulatory processes, approvals, quality assurance plans (QAP) and standardisation.K Shanmugha Sundaram, Director, Projects, NTPC, said at least 80% of the company’s targeted 30 GWe nuclear capacity is expected to comprise PHWRs and PWRs, with SMRs likely to be introduced at a later stage.“We are planning to have a combination of SMR, PHWR and PWR. SMR would be at a later stage,” he said.“Currently, the only available technology in India is PHWR. Naturally, that is the cheapest form of nuclear power available right now. Then we have PWRs, which are already there in Kudankulam. Then we have SMRs, for which it is too early to say,” Sundaram said.Story continues below this adOne of the key concerns around SMRs is that the technology is still at a relatively early stage of development, with limited commercial deployment globally.