India and France have agreed to develop small modular reactors (SMRs) together after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, The Indian Express reports.
India’s foreign ministry said the aim was to develop advanced modular reactors for civil use.
“We intend to be able to cooperate in co-designing the reactors, co-developing them and co-producing them,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said.
The proposed partnership signals a greater enthusiasm for nuclear energy in Modi’s government.
Earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman set a goal of generating 100GW of nuclear energy by 2047, and the government has promised more than $2bn toward research and building five reactors by 2033.
The focus on small modular reactors is a shift in India’s collaboration with France on nuclear power. The countries had previously planned to build the world’s biggest nuclear plant in western Maharashtra state, although it has been held up for more than 10 years over a failure to agree risk allocation.
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