Our Bureau
New Delhi
India’s largest power producer, NTPC, has signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with Russia’s state-owned Rosatom and France’s Electricite de France (EDF) to explore collaborations on large-scale Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) projects, signaling a bold step toward expanding the nation’s nuclear capacity.
The agreements aim to evaluate partnerships across the full project lifecycle—from design and construction to operation and maintenance—while prioritizing indigenisation to boost domestic manufacturing and technology absorption in line with India’s self-reliance goals. This move aligns with surging electricity demand and climate targets, positioning nuclear power as a stable, low-carbon baseload complement to intermittent renewables like solar and wind.
Recent government reforms have eased regulatory hurdles, enabling greater private sector involvement in nuclear energy, a field long dominated by public entities. Rosatom and EDF, global leaders in PWR technology, bring proven expertise in large projects, which NTPC plans to blend with its execution strengths for localised value creation.
Though exploratory and non-binding, the NDAs pave the way for technical and commercial assessments. Analysts view this as a strong indicator of accelerated nuclear growth via international ties, with NTPC targeting 30 GW capacity by 2047 through its arm, NTPC Parmanu Urja Nigam.
