‘The Atomic Energy’ has been constantly in the news since the 1940s, starting with the ‘Weapons Program,’ followed by the ‘Program for Nuclear Propulsion for Submarines.’ (The second-strike capability) These two constitute the first side of the coin (the destructive side). Then came the second side, “Atoms for Peace.” It was the title of the speech delivered by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the UN General Assembly in New York City on December 8, 1953. “I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new—one that I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use.”
The speech was part of a carefully orchestrated media campaign to enlighten the American public on the risks and hopes of a nuclear future. It was designed to shift public focus away from the military. Atoms for Peace was influenced by the report of the State Department Panel of Consultants on Disarmament, which urged that the United States government practice less secrecy and more honesty toward the American people about the realities of the nuclear balance and the dangers of nuclear warfare.
“Atoms for Peace” and the Reorientation of Nuclear Policy
“Atoms for Peace” was a propaganda component of the Cold War strategy of containment. Eisenhower’s speech opened a media campaign that would last for years balancing fears of continuing nuclear armament with promises of peaceful use of uranium in future nuclear reactors. The speech was a tipping point for international focus on peaceful uses of atomic energy.
By this time, the US, USSR and UK already possessed nuclear weapons; later, France joined in 1960 and China in 1964.
The following quotes represent the fear created by the destructive side of the Atomic Energy –
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.“ – Albert Einstein
“If the Third World War is fought with nuclear weapons, the fourth will be fought with bows and arrows.” – Lord Louis Mountbatten
After the second World War, it was realised that the third World War will be won by the nation whose submarines would be able to stay underwater for a long time, thus avoiding the need to surface for charging the batteries and getting detected and bombarded by the enemy aircraft. Nuclear Propulsion was found to be the best answer for the future submarines.
At the time of President Eisenhower’s speech, the land-based nuclear propulsion for the submarine program was already functional and the first Nuclear Propelled Submarine “Nautilus” was already under advanced stage of construction; it was launched in early 1954. The other countries soon followed– Soviet Union commissioned in 1958, the UK launched in 1960 and commissioned in 1963, France launched in 1967 and completed in 1971, and China laid down in 1967, and completed in 1974. India—The land-based unit commissioned in November 2003; Arihant was launched in 2009 and commissioned in 2013, thus becoming the 6th nation to have the Second Strike Capability
The “Atoms for Peace” program opened up nuclear research to civilians and countries that had not previously possessed nuclear technology. Eisenhower argued for a non-proliferation agreement throughout the world and argued for a stop to the spread of military use of nuclear weapons. Although the nations that already had atomic weapons kept their weapons and grew their supplies, very few other countries have developed similar weapons. In this sense, it has been very much contained. The “Atoms for Peace” program also created regulations for the use of nuclear power and, through these regulations, stopped other countries from developing weapons while allowing the technology to be used for positive means.
Atoms for Peace created the ideological background for the creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of nuclear weapons, but also gave political cover for the U.S. nuclear weapons build-up and the backdrop to the Cold War arms race. Under Atoms for Peace-related programs, the U.S., USSR and UK exported over 50 tons of highly enriched uranium (HEU), surplus from the weapons program, to about 30 countries, mostly to fuel research reactors. These research reactors have been producing radioisotopes used for various applications in agriculture, healthcare and industry. Some of these reactors were commissioned even before the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) was established. One example is our Apsara reactor, which was commissioned in august 1956.
Evolution of Civilian Nuclear Power
The IAEA was created in response to growing international concern toward nuclear weapons, especially amid rising tensions between the foremost nuclear powers, the United States and the Soviet Union. U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” speech, which called for the creation of an international organization to monitor the global proliferation of nuclear resources and technology, is credited with catalysing the formation of the IAEA, whose Statute came into force on 29 July 1957. The IAEA is generally described as having three main missions:
Peaceful uses: Promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy by its member states,
Safeguards: Implementing safeguards to verify that nuclear energy is not used for military purposes, and
Nuclear safety: Promoting high standards for nuclear safety
On June 27, 1954, the world’s first nuclear power station, “RBMK-Boiling Water Cooled, Graphite Moderated,” was started. to generate electricity for a power grid at the Soviet city of Obninsk.
On July 17, 1955 BORAX, a prototype to later Boiling Water Reactors, became the first to generate electricity for an entire community.
The world’s first full-scale power station, Calder Hall in England, opened on October 17, 1956. (Magnox dual-purpose Reactor).
The 60 MWe Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, opened in 1957 originating from a cancelled nuclear-powered aircraft carrier contract, BORAX-III, became the first U.S. reactor to put power into a utility line on a continuous basis. A true prototype, the Experimental Boiling Water Reactor, was commissioned in 1957.
The LWR (light water reactor) program of General Electric BWRs (Boiling Water Reactors) and Westinghouse PWRs (Pressurised Water Reactors) flourished during the next 2 to 3 decades: these use low-enriched (2 to 4%) fuel. Similarly, the French reactors of EDF and Soviet reactors VVER are also PWRs. Canadian CANDUs are heavy water reactors using natural uranium as fuel; Indian PHWRs (Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors) are based on the design of the CANDU reactor.
India’s Nuclear Journey: Vision, Development, and Self-Reliance
Thanks to Dr. Bhabha, the great visionary, India started the nuclear energy program very early. He was very close to Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and exchanged letters very often; just after independence, in July 1948, he wrote a letter to Pandit Nehru: “…on my return from Europe and America I collected evidence which made it reasonable to believe that within the next couple of decades atomic energy would play an important part in the economy and the industry of countries and that, if India did not wish to fall even further behind the industrially advanced countries of the world, it would be necessary to take more energetic measures to develop this branch of science and appropriate larger sums for the purpose. An immediate objective should be the setting up of a small atomic pile…the quickest and most desirable way of developing atomic energy in India would be to come to an agreement with the Governments or atomic energy agencies of one or more countries such as Great Britain, France and Norway. Such agreements would be on mutually advantageous terms involving the exchange of raw materials used in the generation of atomic energy and the pooling of scientific and technical information….” He later proposed to Pandit Nehru the formation of the Atomic Energy Commission and the need for secrecy and reporting directly to the Prime Minister. In July 1954, he communicates to the PM his vision on Atomic Energy. The list includes plants for producing Heavy Water, plants for enriching natural Uranium, the setting up of breeder reactors, plutonium extraction plant and also a propulsion plant.
Dr. Bhabha established the AEET (Atomic Energy establishment, Trombay) in 1954. After his death, it was renamed as BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre). At the same time, he signed an agreement with Canada for setting up the 40 Mw CIR (Canada India Reactor) for research and Isotope production which became operational at Trombay in 1960. Before the CIR was commissioned, Apsara, the first nuclear research reactor in Asia, was conceptualised by Dr. Bhabha, became operational in 1956 and had started producing radioisotopes for application in agriculture, healthcare and industry. The first heavy water production plant was commissioned at Nangal in 1962 and the fuel reprocessing plant in 1965. Later, one of the largest research projects & isotope production reactor Dhruva was designed, built and commissioned in 1984. Most of the radioisotopes are produced in research reactors, which operate at much lower temperatures and pressures compared to power reactors; thus, the probability of an accident and the consequent damage is extremely low.
In 1976. The late Dr. V. K. Iya, then Director of the Isotope Group at BARC, started NAARRI (National Association for Application of Radioisotopes and Radiation in Industry). As and when any radiation technology application in agriculture, health or industry matured in the DAE and was found to be commercially viable, it was transferred to the private sector. Because of his initiative In 1989, another unit of DAE, the Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT), was carved out of BARC, as an independent unit of the DAE and since then it has been leading the resurgence of isotope applications and radiation technology across industry, health care, research and agricultural sectors. The production of radioisotopes, which had begun with the research reactor APSARA, got a boost with the commissioning of research reactors CIRUS and DHRUVA. Later, production of cobalt-60 was initiated in the power reactors. BRIT caters to more than 2000 customers ranging from major industrial units, NDT centers, big hospital chains and sophisticated research laboratories to humble diagnostic laboratories. As of now, in most of the good private hospitals, there is a department of nuclear medicine; there are more than 30 private industries sterilising medical devices and reducing the bioburden of food ingredients with Cobalt 60 sources produced in our reactors. Most of these plants sterilise a few thousand tons of medical devices annually. It is estimated that the number of persons engaged in these activities for societal benefits is far more than the number employed for generating nuclear power all over the world. This is the most beneficial aspect of Atomic Energy.
India’s Nuclear Power Program started with the first nuclear power station, consisting of 2, 200 Mwe BWRs supplied and commissioned by General Electric USA in 1969 at Tarapur on a turnkey basis. The US Govt. stopped the supply of fuel for Tarapur reactors after 1974, when India conducted the Peaceful Nuclear Explosion. The US Govt. neither permitted the reprocessing of the spent fuel nor was in a position to take it back due to logistics problems. Later the fuel reloads were bought from other countries (France, China and Russia), and the reactors have been running; the spent fuel is stored in water pools, as it needs water cooling. About 5 years ago, these reactors were shut down for refurbishing. The refurbishing has been completed; the first unit was connected to the grid on January 29, 2026 and the second unit is likely to be connected next month. Hats off to the staff at Tarapur, NPCIL, DAE and the Indian Engineering community; these will be the first-generation, oldest reactors still producing electricity
The construction of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (RAPP) began in 1963 with two CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) capable of producing 220 MWe of electricity each. Ten years later, in 1973 RAPS-1 was put into service. In 1974, Canada stopped its support of the project, delaying the commissioning of RAPS-2 until 1981. It was a blessing in disguise as our indigenous program of PHWRs (Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors) took off, designing and building more 220 MWe reactors, upscaling to 540 MWe, and now 700 Mwe capacity.
Construction costs of these reactors as reported were about Rs. 11 Crores/Mwe for 540 Mwe units at Tarapur, 12 crores/MWe for 220 Mwe units at Kaiga and is expected to be Rs. 1600 Crores/MWe for the 700 MWe PHWRs with a 60-year life expectancy being built now.
The government Projections indicate the increase from the current 8,180 MWe to 22,480 MW by the fiscal year 2031-32, ultimately reaching 100 GWe by 2047. In addition to large power reactors, there will be a large number of SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) which can be built in an assembly line, transported and installed at the site. A number of SMRs are being developed in many countries, India being one of these.
Russia’s Atomstroyexport supplied the country’s first large nuclear power plant, Kudankulam 1 & 2, comprising of two VVER-1000 reactors The agreement was signed in 2001 at the Kremlin in the presence of the late PM Shri Bajpayee and President Putin, after the negotiations, to bring down the Russian component, thus increasing the Indian participation to bring down the cost.
Unit 1 started up in mid-July 2013, was connected to the grid in October 2013 and entered commercial operation at the end of December 2014. Unit 2 construction was declared complete in July 2015, it was grid-connected in August 2016, and it commenced commercial operation at the start of April 2017. The total cost of both units was about Rs. 21,000 crores, comparable with the cost of our indigenous PHWRs. Russia is supplying all the enriched fuel through the life of the plant
Kudankulam 3&4 are being built as the first stage of phase 2 at the site and are being built with Russian technical assistance “within the scope of” the 1988 agreement. Their cost is expected to be Rs 39,747 crore and the project was officially launched in October 2016. Units 3&4 are expected to be completed soon. Government has accorded approval of Kudankulam 5 & 6 also.
The Future of Nuclear Energy: Sustainability, Safety, and Strategic Challenges
Decades ago, it was predicted/extrapolated that due to the burning of fossil fuels and increase in CO₂ emissions, the average world temperature would go up This would result in the melting of snow/ice, consequently resulting in mass-scale flooding leading to the submerging of some cities. That was the time when it was advised to go for renewables/green energy like solar/wind/hydro. The COP (Conference of Parties) was established to discuss the subject.
Solar power in India is an essential source of renewable energy and electricity generation. Since the mid-2010s, India has increased its solar power significantly with the help of various government initiatives and rapid awareness about the importance of renewable energy and sustainability in the society. India’s solar power installed capacity was 135.81 GW as of 31 December 2025. In order to decrease carbon dioxide emissions, reduce reliance on fossil fuels (with coal being the primary source of electricity for the nation at present), bolster employment and the economy, and make India energy independent by making it self-reliant on renewable energy, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy was formed to look after the country’s activities to promote these goals. These collaborative efforts, along with global cooperation with the help of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) since 2015 for promoting solar energy worldwide while also taking care of India, have made India one of the world’s fastest adopters of solar power, making it the third-largest producer of solar power globally as of 2025, after China and the United States.
In COP 28, nuclear power was also included as green, base load power. It is opined (Dr. R. B. Grover) that It is the realisation that intermittent sources cannot be relied upon and need storage. When considered along with storage to address diurnal variation, they become very expensive. And when you consider the requirement of seasonal storage, they become unviable. Energy professionals realised it at the beginning of the deployment of solar and wind. I have seen academic papers from 2010 onwards. It dawned on policymakers only when the penetration of solar and wind increased and influenced grid system operation. Changing the narrative from “solar is free” to “solar is very expensive” took time. To sum up, the ultimate cause of nuclear gaining importance is the fact that it is the only baseload carbon-free source.
After more than two decades of stagnation, global nuclear power capacity is set to increase by at least one-third by 2035, according to the latest World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency. Global nuclear generating capacity is expected to increase from 420 GWe in 2024 to 728 GWe in 2050 in a scenario based on existing energy policies. (WNN daily)
The main reason for stagnation has been the three severe accidents in the nuclear power industry. The “Three-mile accident in 1979,” the “Chernobyl accident in 1986,” and Fukushima in 2011 did slow down the growth of nuclear power in between but it has now picked up. It is primarily due to the acceptance by COP 28 as green like Solar, Wind, Hydro
The latest big nuclear power station commissioned is the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant built in the UAE by KEPCO of South Korea. It consists of 4 units of advanced PWRs each generating 1 ,400 Mwe, ( a total of 5,600 MWe) at a cost of $32 billion. This amounts to about $5.72 million or Rs. 51 crores/MWe. The plant was started in 2012, and all four units were commissioned between 2020 and 2024.
Given that anywhere between 40 and 70 SMRs are in development across the world, how many reactors can each assembly line expect to manufacture each year? During installation, SMRs face the same risk as large reactors—of cost and time overruns. Once installed, they produce the same externalities as large reactors (like accidents and radioactive waste disposal) and, ergo, have similar system costs as large reactors (boilers, turbines, safety systems, and staff). All these costs, however, have to be recovered from lower power output. That will add to the cost per unit. (Rajshekhar CARBONCOPY)
On the whole, SMRs might be much costlier than large reactors. In his talk at the India Nuclear Business Platform, AK Nayak, head of the Nuclear Control and Program Wing at the Department of Atomic Energy, pegged the “ballpark” cost of erecting an SMR at “₹200 million/MW”—or ₹20 crore/MW. (Rajshekhar CARBONCOPY)
SMRs will be more expensive than pumped storage—which can also address intermittency and ensure grid stability. “I am not sure SMRs are a fruitful LT (long-term) investment,” said author Prabir Purkayastha. “But pumped storage is. You can use it to cycle up and down. You can create these in small areas. They can do daily balancing as well as long-term balancing.”
While SMRs (small modular reactors) are a natural choice for localised grid applications, smaller reactors would mean a larger number of reactor units, leading to a bigger risk of a major accident, unless their safety is at a correspondingly higher level. Not all SMRs would meet these criteria, according to the country’s top nuclear scientist ANIL KAKODKAR (Indian Express)
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were a series of bilateral conferences and international treaties signed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR). These treaties had the goal of reducing the number of long-range ballistic missiles (strategic arms) that each side could possess and manufacture. For the implementation, some of the old nuclear-propelled submarines were decommissioned, but the reactors on board still had many years of life left. There was a discussion to anchor these reactors at various seaports for electricity generation and desalination; finally the idea was dropped as it would increase the probability of nuclear terrorism.
The storage of spent fuel will be a problem; for our country with high population density, it will not be easy to find areas for building spent fuel storage pools. The American Nuclear Society (ANS) mentions 86000 tons of spent fuel are lying in pools at 79 sites in the US and 2000 tons are added every year.
Last but not least, the IAEA will need to be expanded, maybe to double the present strength for monitoring, to avoid any threat of nuclear terrorism and proliferation. In 2024, the International Atomic Energy Agency applied safeguards for 190 States with safeguards agreements in force, according to the Safeguards Statement and Background for 2024. This involved performing more than 3,000 in-field verification activities at more than 1,300 nuclear facilities and ‘locations outside facilities’ around the world. Through safeguards, the IAEA verifies States’ commitments to use nuclear material and technology for peaceful purposes. The annual Safeguards Statement presents the IAEA’s findings and conclusions from undertaking its nuclear verification work throughout the year.