India: restart of the oldest reactor and the private sector's breakthrough

India has launched a serious offensive in the nuclear sector. While the national regulator (AERB) approved the restart of the second block of the country’s oldest nuclear power plant (Tarapur), the energy giant NTPC is preparing for a historic step – submitting the first feasibility study for standalone nuclear projects under a private–public partnership.

Tarapur: a new life for the veteran from 1969.

A reactor unit 2 of the Tarapur Nuclear Power Plant (TAPS-2), which began operation in 1969, has received permission to operate for another 10 years after extensive modernization. NPCIL carried out a complete replacement of the coolant recirculation piping with advanced corrosion-resistant steels, along with the installation of a filtered containment ventilation system, and detailed inspections of the welded joints of the reactor vessel confirmed that the unit can operate safely with standard maintenance, despite having been designed more than half a century ago.

SHANTI 2025 Act: Market opening and new exclusion zones

The key driver of change is last year’s SHANTI law (Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India), about which we have already written and which opened the doors for private companies to participate in operations, equipment manufacturing, and even the fabrication of nuclear fuel.

A particularly significant development, as we learn from the media, is the announced reduction of exclusion zones (buffer zones) around plants: instead of the current 1 km, the zone could be reduced to 500 meters for small reactors (SMRs) and 700 meters for large ones, and this change would halve the land requirement for large reactors, while for small units the requirement would be reduced by two-thirds, enabling 2 or 3 times higher capacity at the same sites.

But we must add one thing: “space” at nuclear facilities is really not a problem, because it is a source of energy that, compared to other energy sources, especially renewables, has a huge margin of advantage.

NTPC as the new player

The NTPC, which already operates with over 89 gigawatts of capacity, now plans to build at least two units of 700 megawatts each in several states. The signing of a memorandum of understanding with the French EDF further confirms India's ambition to diversify its technological portfolio and accelerate the energy transition, but we add that we have reservations about broad private capital involvement in this industry.