Nuclear power will be part of all energy discussions as its commercialisation has not happened yet, largely in the Indian context, even though the country signed a treaty with the US, Union Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday.
This assumes significance in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US later this week where he will meet US President Donald Trump and have discussion on a series of subjects, including energy.
Earlier on Monday during a presser on India Energy Week 2025, which began here on Tuesday, Hardeep Puri had said, "I will be surprised if sourcing of energy from the US does not figure in the discussions (of PM and Trump)." Hardeep Puri had also stated that with President (Trump) saying he wants to see global energy prices coming down, he wants more and more energy to come to the market. For countries like India it is a positive development, he said.
During ministerial panel discussion at IEW25, Hardeep Puri stated, "Nuclear (power) provides an efficient cost-effective thing but you have to go to a particular route and I'm sure that this is going to be a discussion point in major wherever such discussions take place. I see that happening." About the commercial expansion of nuclear power, the minister stated, "We had signed an India-US civilian nuclear energy deal. We had an India-specific IAEA safeguards agreement but somehow the commercial contracting never took place... But now we're talking about small modular reactors." Earlier this month in her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs 20,000-crore nuclear mission with an aim of developing at least 100GW of nuclear energy by 2047.
She had said that for an active partnership with the private sector to meet this goal, amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act will be taken up, she informed the House.
A Nuclear Energy Mission for research & development of Small Modular Reactors (SMR) with an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore will be set up.
At least five indigenously developed SMRs will be operationalised by 2033.
Talking about the Trump administration, Hardeep Puri recalled that during his last term as India's permanent representative to the United Nations in New York he had the "great privilege of knowing Trump when he was not the President".
"I have the privilege of living in the Trump Tower. He used to visit us every year to have the annual get together of the residents of World Trump Tower. I was the minister in waiting when he came here for first official visit. So I have watched the unfolding events with more than a sense of interest," he said.
He also pointed out that we live in an interdependent world and 50 per cent of our(India's) GDP is in the external sector.
The new aspect of (US) adminstration is music to my ears when it says that more energy should come in the market, he stated.
More energy means that prices should come down for a country like India, which is both consumer and producer, he said.
There has never been shortage of energy in the world, he said, adding that there is something called energy poverty.
There are 1.18 billion people who are energy poor. There are 750 million who are lacking electricity and 2 billion with clean cooking solutions.
"I think we can solve that problem easily. That problem should be resolve quickly," he suggested.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
