New York, Apr 13 (PTI) India needs a “nuclear energy renaissance” and the US is interested in helping the country develop a nuclear infrastructure as both nations have a vital shared interest in this area, Holtec CEO Dr Kris Singh has said, voicing optimism that things will move forward under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“India and the US have shared strategic interest in clean energy... Nuclear power should be a unifier and India should naturally take the lead there. For that, India needs to have an exportable technology,” Singh told PTI in an exclusive interview at the sprawling Krishna P Singh Technology Campus in Camden, New Jersey.

Holtec International is a diversified energy technology company recognised as the leading technology innovator in the field of carbon-free power generation, specifically commercial nuclear and solar energy.

In September last year, Singh had met PM Modi here during the Prime Minister’s visit for the UN General Assembly high-level session and they had discussed Holtec’s plan to expand manufacturing in India and the potential for boosting cooperation in the field of civil nuclear energy.

The company had last month announced that the US Department of Energy has granted a specific authorisation to Holtec International, with the Indian government’s concurrence, to sell the company’s flagship small modular reactor SMR-300 for deployment in India.

The authorisation names three Indian companies – Larsen & Tubro (Mumbai), Tata Consulting Engineers (Mumbai), and the company’s own subsidiary Holtec Asia (Pune) – as eligible entities with whom Holtec can share necessary technical information to execute its SMR-300 program, Holtec had said in a statement.

Following the significant development, Singh, who personally led Holtec’s drive to win the acceptance of both governments, had said in the statement that “we are thrilled that the US and India are authorising the introduction of the pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology to India which, after 80 years of extensive operational experience, has emerged as the de facto global standard for commercial reactors that has been adopted by every major nuclear energy producer country in the world”.

Singh had said that Holtec's SMR-300 “checks every box relevant to India’s needs and circumstances, such as a standardized design that is seismically competent to be deployed anywhere in India, one that requires only 25 acres (and no exclusion zone) of land to house two reactors (600 MWe power output), one that can be operated using air (in lieu of water) as the “waste heat sink” in a water-challenged region, and one that can be substantially shop manufactured requiring minimal field erection effort.

In the interview with PTI, Singh emphasised that Holtec has received the authorisation to manufacture, collaborate with Indian companies in India and here in the US in a collaborative arrangement that has been approved by the US.

“So quite clearly, the United States is interested in helping India develop a nuclear infrastructure that can help India and the neighbourhood. India is also trying, and I think under Prime Minister Modi, things will happen,” he said.

Holtec has said that the specific authorisation granted to it to build its SMR-300 reactors in India with the participation of eligible Indian companies shows the US and Indian governments' shared interest in boosting India’s nuclear energy output.

India’s nuclear energy output, which, presently at 8.5 GW, must be increased multi-fold by 2047 - when India will commemorate the centennial year of its independence and by when PM Modi has vowed that the country’s economic prosperity would reach the level of the world’s leading developed economies, he added.

Singh said the US has done its part, taken away barriers for “our reactor to be deployed in India and we have to thank the Trump administration for making it happen”, and added that “India now is working hard to do their part.” He said it is his understanding that India is working to get the legislation, likely in the monsoon session of Parliament, when bills could be introduced that will amend the prior Acts that constrain private companies from building SMRs in the country.

“I think those laws will be passed and at that point, India's nuclear law will be harmonised with the rest of the world,” he said.

“I envision India tomorrow to have hundreds of our SMR-300 reactors all over the country. The country has clean energy. There's no pollution to the environment and power is locally generated, and power is cheap. That is my vision,” Singh said.

He underlined that both the US and India have a “vital shared interest in the growth of nuclear energy in India and by extension, the neighbouring countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Middle East and North Africa.” From American businesses to other big global players, "We need to allow external investors to come in, invest and make money in India,” the CEO said.

“Nuclear energy sector in India will take off. The US has a vested interest in it. India has a critical interest in it. The country needs a nuclear energy renaissance and that will happen only if we stop endless debates and get on with things,” Singh said.

He noted that India today is “self-assured” and is “doing marvelous things in space, drones. In every sector of modern technology, India is in a leadership role and that is wonderful.” Making a reference to May 1974 when India had conducted its first nuclear test, Singh said, “India was unfairly excluded for decades and India had to develop its own (nuclear power) which was a matter of great credit to the people who did it. But today's circumstances are different.

"Today, India is a major power, major economic power. India is not excludable like it was back in 1974. The country cannot be excluded from the world.” PTI YAS SCY