Bagaimana India dapat mengembangkan ambisi nuklirnya menjadi sesuatu yang unik

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The thermonuclear visit comes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman set aside $2.3 billion in the federal budget earlier this month to promote the development of nuclear power generation in India.

“This initiative aims to enhance domestic nuclear capabilities, promote private sector participation, and accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear technologies such as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs),” the government said in a statement.

Small modular reactors, that produce under 300 megawatts of electricity, have been touted as the answer to several challenges the nuclear industry faces. The industry says SMRs, which will be manufactured in modules elsewhere and assembled onsite, will reduce construction time and cost, which have tended to come in multiple times the initial estimates.

In fact, the government says it will build five modular reactors in under a decade using the funds, helping it reach its self-imposed 100-gigawatt nuclear energy target by 2047. Nuclear energy accounts for about 3% of India’s generation capacity currently, with plans to increase capacity from 6.7 gigawatts to 22.4 gigawatts by 2031.

While the goals are certainly ambitious, the challenges look daunting, if not outright impossible to overcome. The International Energy Agency and investment banks Bernstein and Royal Bank of Canada, for instance, say India’s nuclear ambitions are quite simply unachievable.

Even with China’s track record for infrastructure development, it took the country about 15 years to set up its first modular reactor Linglong One. Analysts say it will be “pleasantly surprising” if India were to beat this time scale.

“While it absolutely merits a whole-hearted attempt on India’s part – from a stock market analyst perspective it is too far to be … priced in today,” said Bernstein analyst Nikhil Nigania. “There is a low likelihood that even [one] indigenous SMR would be operational in India by 2033 against [the five the government] has planned.”

Atomic lawsuits

India may also have stumbled on the first step.

A tender for a 220-megawatt Bharat Small Reactor, which isn’t modular, puts all the financial risks of building a nuclear power plant onto the private sector — under the “Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act” — while the state-owned power company NPCIL retains many of the benefits, including ownership and control of the power plant.

The CLND Act, which sees companies and their suppliers on the hook for any nuclear accident in India, is viewed by some industry experts as the bane of the private sector. They say if it were not for the law, construction of the world’s largest nuclear power plant would now be underway in India.

French-state-owned nuclear giant EDF, which operates more than 60 nuclear power stations in France and the U.K., submitted its plans in 2021 to build six reactor units that would generate 9.6 gigawatts of carbon-free energy. Yet, earlier this year, it said the existence of the CLND had prevented it from pushing ahead.

“In addition to the country risk, which includes a substantial tax dimension, the conditions related to the scope of nuclear liability in India must be met, and the project’s financing plan must be secured before the final contracts are signed,” EDF said in a bond prospectus document issued earlier this year.

U.S. nuclear giant Westinghouse Electric Company, meanwhile, proposed to build six 1,200 megawatt AP1000 reactors, which have been tried and tested in the U.S. as well as in China, more than a decade ago. Yet, no progress has been made on the deal since then.

“Westinghouse, the supplier of high output nuclear power plants, remains skittish about sales to India with the absence of durable assurance of limited liability in the event of an accident,” said Ashley Tellis, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2023.

The concerns have not gone unnoticed. The Indian government has said it intends to amend the laws preventing companies like EDF from entering the nuclear sector.

“For an active partnership with the private sector towards this goal, amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act will be taken up,” said Finance Minister Sitharaman in the budget speech to Parliament.

Amending the statute books is just a first step for India, however, as it looks to make some headway in meeting its nuclear goals.

Scarce land

Another key factor holding up the construction of these rotund machines has been finding suitable land.

Protests against building nuclear plants in India have been fueled by past nuclear scares, such as the Fukushima disaster in 2011. The construction of the Gorakhpur plant in Haryana, which began in 2014, is not expected to produce energy until 2032, highlighting the long timelines for nuclear projects in India. However, the government is now focusing on building clusters of giga-sized reactors to streamline the approval process. Private companies, like Larsen & Toubro, are also playing a role in making construction more efficient by delivering components ahead of schedule. Partnering with foreign entities, like France’s EDF, is another strategy to cut timelines and achieve India’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders may include discussions on nuclear energy, given India’s reliance on coal for energy. Indeks Nifty 50 telah turun sebesar 2.2% sejauh ini minggu ini dan berada di zona merah sebesar 2.66% untuk tahun ini.

Imbal hasil obligasi pemerintah India 10 tahun yang menjadi patokan tetap di level 6.70% sepanjang minggu ini.

Pada CNBC TV minggu ini, Menteri Perminyakan dan Gas Alam India, Hardeep Singh Puri, membahas pertumbuhan ekonomi India, kebijakan energi, dan sanksi AS terhadap minyak Rusia dengan Sri Jegarajah dari CNBC di sela-sela konferensi India Energy Week. “Kami bermain sesuai aturan. Jika ada sanksi internasional yang dipegang teguh, kami tidak akan mengelakinya,” ujar Puri, merujuk pada pembelian minyak Rusia oleh India di tengah sanksi Barat dan G7 terhadap ekspor energi Moskow.

Sementara itu, anggaran terbaru India telah efektif membebaskan penggunaan tabungan rumah tangga di India untuk berinvestasi dalam saham, kata Feroze Azeez, Wakil CIO Anand Rathi Wealth. Saat ini, sekitar 90% tabungan dalam setahun masuk ke aset non-ekuitas seperti utang, asuransi, atau real estat, tambah Azeez, sehingga perubahan ini bisa berdampak lebih besar pada pasar modal daripada ledakan konsumsi apapun.

### Apa yang akan terjadi minggu depan?

Hexaware Technologies, perusahaan konsultan TI, akan melisting pada hari Rabu. Sementara itu, angka produk domestik bruto preliminer untuk Jepang, dan estimasi kedua untuk zona euro, akan keluar pada hari Senin dan Rabu, masing-masing.

– 14 Februari: Indeks harga grosir India untuk Januari, penjualan eceran AS untuk Januari
– 17 Februari: Produk domestik bruto Jepang untuk kuartal keempat, preliminer
– 19 Februari: IPO Hexaware Technologies, Produk domestik bruto zona euro untuk kuartal keempat, Indeks harga konsumen Inggris untuk Januari
– 20 Februari: Menit Komite Pasar Terbuka Federal AS untuk pertemuan Januari, Keputusan suku bunga primer pinjaman satu dan lima tahun China

Dengan begitu banyak peristiwa ekonomi yang terjadi, penting untuk terus mengikuti berita dan perkembangan terbaru untuk membuat keputusan investasi yang tepat. Semoga informasi ini bermanfaat bagi Anda dalam memahami kondisi pasar global saat ini.