A U.S. industry delegation comprising the Nuclear Energy Institute and the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum met Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh on Monday (May 18, 2026) to discuss private investment and industry collaboration in India’s nuclear sector, a press statement from the Science Ministry said.
The meeting, attended by Department of Science and Technology Secretary Rajesh S. Gokhale and senior officials from the Department of Atomic Energy, focused on India’s Nuclear Energy Mission and recent policy reforms widening private sector participation.
Mr. Singh told the delegation that India aimed to scale up nuclear capacity from the current 8.8 GW to 100 GW by 2047 — a roughly 12-fold expansion that forms a key plank of the government’s ‘Viksit Bharat’ vision. Nuclear power currently contributes about 3% of India’s electricity generation, with installed capacity drawn from 24 operating reactors. Capacity is projected to reach around 22 GW by 2032 through a mix of indigenous 700 MW pressurised heavy water reactors and reactors built through international cooperation.
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The Minister highlighted the recently enacted SHANTI (Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India) Act, 2025, which replaced the Atomic Energy Act of 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act of 2010. The law permits private and foreign participation — including up to 49% equity in nuclear power projects — and overhauls the supplier liability regime that had long deterred foreign vendors. He said the implementation framework under the Act was being finalised.
Discussions also covered Small Modular Reactors, for which the government has allocated nearly ₹20,000 crore, and potential cooperation on micro-reactors, AI-enabled safety systems and nuclear energy modelling.
The two sides reviewed progress on the long-pending Westinghouse AP1000 project at Kovvada, the Indo-U.S. Civil Nuclear Energy Working Group, hydrogen production, rare earths cooperation and superconducting accelerator work with Fermilab. The LIGO-India gravitational-wave observatory, approved at ₹2,600 crore and being implemented with the U.S. LIGO Laboratory and the National Science Foundation, was also discussed.
A high-level U.S. industry delegation comprising representatives from the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) called on to hold detailed discussions on the emerging opportunities for private investment and industry collaboration… pic.twitter.com/XWbCvYZmlR
The interaction, the government said, concluded with a commitment to deepen industry-led cooperation under the U.S.-India TRUST Initiative announced in February 2025.
TRUST (Transforming the Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology) is a bilateral framework launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump in February 2025, replacing the earlier iCET initiative from the Joe Biden years. It aims to deepen India-U.S. cooperation across defence, AI, semiconductors, quantum computing, biotechnology, energy, space, and critical minerals — with a flagship roadmap on accelerating AI infrastructure build-out in India.
Published - May 18, 2026 09:18 pm IST
nuclear policy / India-United States
Source: The Hindu - India News
