NPCIL and BARC Release the Project Report for SMR-55, India's 55 MWe Small Reactor for Data Centres and Industry
The detailed project report for the indigenous SMR-55 pressurised water reactor, released on 1 October, follows the BSMR-300 report and moves India's three-track small modular reactor programme through a planning milestone, with approvals and construction still ahead.
India's small modular reactor (SMR) programme moved another step from concept towards project planning on 1 October 2026, when the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) released the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the SMR-55, an indigenous 55 MWe reactor.
The DPR was signed by Raghupati Roy, Project Director (ART) at NPCIL, and Joe Mohan, Director of BARC's Reactor Physics Group, in the presence of NPCIL Chairman and Managing Director V. Rajesh and BARC Director Vivek Bhasin.
What the SMR-55 is
The SMR-55 is a compact pressurised water reactor (PWR), the same broad reactor family that dominates the global nuclear fleet, but scaled down to 55 MWe. NPCIL and BARC have co-developed the design. That size places it at the small end of the SMR spectrum, well below India's workhorse 700 MWe pressurised heavy water reactors and the 200–300 MWe class of the Bharat Small Modular Reactor (BSMR) designs.
The two organisations list four intended uses:
- electricity for remote and off-grid locations;
- power for energy-intensive data centres;
- captive generation for heavy industry;
- supporting broader decarbonisation goals.
Reports on the release say the lead twin units are planned at a Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) site, with a 2033 target. Earlier reporting has identified Tarapur in Maharashtra as the site selected for the BSMR-200 and SMR-55 lead units.
How it fits India's three-track SMR push
The SMR-55 DPR comes about seven weeks after NPCIL and BARC released the DPR for the larger BSMR-300 on 14 August 2026. India's atomic energy establishment is now working on three distinct SMR tracks, each aimed at a different market:
- BSMR-200/300: larger PWR-based small reactors suited to replacing ageing coal units and supplying large industrial users.
- SMR-55: a smaller unit for remote grids, data-centre campuses and captive plants where a few tens of megawatts of firm, low-carbon power is the requirement.
- A high-temperature gas-cooled reactor of up to about 5 MWth, intended mainly for hydrogen production.
This portfolio approach reflects a policy push that began with the Union Budget for 2025–26, which announced a Nuclear Energy Mission with ₹20,000 crore for SMR research and development and a goal of at least five indigenously designed SMRs operational by 2033. It also supports India's longer-term target of 100 GW of nuclear capacity by 2047, up from roughly 8–9 GW installed today.
Why a DPR matters
A detailed project report is the document that turns a reactor design into a project that can be costed, sanctioned and built. It typically covers the plant configuration, site requirements, cost estimates, construction schedule and financing assumptions. With the DPR in hand, the SMR-55 can move towards financial sanction, regulatory review by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, and procurement of long-lead equipment.
A DPR can support assessment of what a project might cost to build and run. This release does not disclose a public cost estimate or establish financial sanction, regulatory approval or a construction start. That is critical for SMRs, whose economic case depends on factory fabrication, standardised modules and shorter construction times making up for the loss of economies of scale that large reactors enjoy.
The case for 55 MWe
The choice of such a small rating is deliberate. Many of the loads India now wants to decarbonise do not need a gigawatt:
- Data centres are scaling rapidly in India, and operators increasingly want round-the-clock clean power that solar and wind cannot supply alone without large storage.
- Remote and strategic locations, including islands and border areas, often rely on diesel generation, which is expensive and carbon-intensive.
- Heavy industries such as steel, aluminium, cement and chemicals run captive power plants, mostly on coal, and face rising pressure to cut emissions, including from export markets with carbon border taxes.
A 55 MWe unit could, in principle, be sited closer to such loads, subject to site-specific safety assessment and regulatory approval. That is the logic many SMR developers worldwide are pursuing.
What it means for Indian industry
An indigenous PWR line also has industrial-policy value. India's nuclear manufacturing base has been built largely around heavy-water reactor components. A PWR-based SMR family creates demand for a different set of components: compact pressure vessels, steam generators, control rod drive mechanisms and passive safety systems. These are opportunities for Indian heavy engineering firms that have supplied the nuclear sector for decades.
The challenges are familiar. India has not yet built a commercial PWR of its own design for power generation, so first-of-a-kind engineering, licensing and supply-chain risks will be real. Fuel supply for light-water reactors, which use enriched uranium, is another variable that NPCIL and DAE will need to plan for. Costs per megawatt for first units of any SMR are typically high, and the economic case usually depends on building a fleet.
A global race in small reactors
India is not alone in betting on smaller reactors. Utilities, governments and technology companies in North America, Europe and Asia are backing SMR designs, and large data-centre operators in the United States have signed agreements to buy power from future small reactors. Most of these designs are still in licensing or early construction, and very few SMRs anywhere are producing commercial power today.
That gives India an opening. A domestically designed, domestically licensed SMR-55 that reaches operation in the early 2030s would put India among the early movers, with potential to offer the design to partner countries that want small, grid-appropriate nuclear units without dependence on a handful of Western, Russian or Chinese vendors.
What to watch next
The next signposts are financial sanction for the lead twin units, site-specific regulatory approvals, and whether industrial or data-centre users sign up as early customers or partners. With BSMR-300 and SMR-55 DPRs now both released within two months, the main question is no longer whether India will design its own small reactors, but how quickly it can build the first ones and bring their costs down.