Russia’s Rosatom has reportedly offered technology transfer to India for small modular reactors (SMRs), as the South Asian nation seeks to boost nuclear energy generation. Rosatom could explore the possibility of setting up SMRs in coastal areas of India, the Economic Times reported on Feb. 3, citing sources.
The report comes one day after the Indian government announced a Nuclear Energy Mission with funding of $2.35 billion (20 billion rupees) into the sector. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her announcement of the federal budget for the 2025-26 financial year (which starts in April 2025), noted that under the Mission, India is planning to make five SMRs operational by 2033.
Rosatom, which is currently developing India’s largest nuclear energy facility, the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, offered New Delhi cooperation on SMR technology last year, the report noted. Several documents signed between the two nations in 2024 also indicated the intention to cooperate in SMR technology, including the joint statement issued during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow in July, which emphasized deepening cooperation in the nuclear energy field.
During his visit, Modi, accompanied by Russian President Vladimir Putin, was given a tour of the Atom Pavilion in Moscow. The two leaders were briefed on a range of different nuclear energy technologies and projects, including nuclear-powered icebreakers and floating nuclear power plants, which, according to TASS, Putin said could eventually “replace the oil produced around the world.” Rosatom Director General Aleksey Likhachev was reported as having told Modi that Russia could offer small nuclear reactors to India with “very deep localization” and could transfer the “whole construction part.”
Rosatom is the only foreign company involved in the construction of a nuclear power facility in India, the outlet noted. The report added, however, that the SMR segment, in particular, has attracted offers of collaboration from the U.S. and France.
