Lok Sabha Question No. 4455 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-08-20
Subject: Nuclear Waste Management
Ministry: ATOMIC ENERGY
Asked by: Shri Rao Rajendra Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA DEPARTMENT OF ATOMIC ENERGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO - 4455 ANSWERED ON 20/08/2025

## NUCLEAR WASTE MANAGEMENT

## 4455. SHRI RAO RAJENDRA SINGH

Will the PRIME MINISTER be pleased to state:-

- (a) whether the Government has any strategy for managing nuclear waste that will be generated from the planned expansion to 100 GW by 2047 and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether there is any data on the current inventory of nuclear waste at various facilities across the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government has established any permanent disposal facility for high-level nuclear waste in the country and if so, details thereof;
- (d) if  not,  whether  the  Government  is  planning  to  establish  the  same  anywhere  in  the country and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether  the  Government  has  allocated  any  specific  budget  for  nuclear  waste management in the Nuclear Energy Mission announced during Budget 2025-26 and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES & PENSIONS AND PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) Yes, management of nuclear waste that will be generated from the planned expansion to 100 GW by 2047 is in line with current waste management practice. Nuclear wastes arising from nuclear power plants and fuel cycle facilities are safely disposed/managed under the provisions of 'The Atomic Energy Act. 1962', subsequent amendments and the Atomic Energy (Safe Disposal of Radioactive Wastes) Rules 1987.  As a waste management philosophy, no waste in  any physical form is released/disposed to  the environment unless the same is cleared, exempted or excluded from regulations.

A comprehensive radioactive waste management is established taking into account the operational  capability  for  the  management  of  radioactive  waste  and  an  independent regulatory capability for its overview. Radioactive wastes generated at nuclear power plants, during their operation, are of low & intermediate activity level and are managed at  the  site  itself.  These  wastes are treated,  concentrated, compacted, immobilized in solid  materials  like  cement  and  disposed  in  specially  constructed  structures  such  as reinforced concrete trenches and tile holes, located at the site. The disposal facilities are kept  under  constant  surveillance  with  the  help  of  bore-wells  laid  out  in  a  planned manner by routinely monitoring the underground water and soil samples to confirm effective confinement of radioactivity present in the disposed waste. This practice is at par with international practices following the guidelines of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Post 2025-26 budget announcement, a Roadmap for achieving the goal of 100 GW of Nuclear  Capacity  by  2047  has  been  actively  deliberated  by  a  committee  that  has reviewed all the relevant aspects, including management of nuclear waste.

For  successful  lift-off  of  Nuclear  Energy  Mission,  a  host  of  ground-preparatory activities are to be completed, say within a tight time frame of 5 to 7 years, towards policy, legal and regulatory reforms, in all related areas of nuclear power generation including Spent Fuel Reprocessing & Waste Management, among others.

- (b) Typically, radioactive solid wastes arising from nuclear power plants which are to be disposed at site during the life time including decommissioning is within 0.15 cubic meters/year/MW.  Records of radioactive wastes are regularly filed with regulatory authority regarding quantity and location of such waste disposed.
- (c)& (d) India follows a closed nuclear fuel cycle for recovery of fissile material and reduce the burden of nuclear waste management, where domestic spent fuel is reprocessed and most  of  its  components  are  recycled  back  as  fuel  for  future  reactors.  High-level radioactive  waste  generated  during  reprocessing  is  immobilised  into  an  inert  glass matrix by vitrification and stored in Solid Storage Surveillance Facilities for interim storage  at  par  with  international  practices  following  the  guidelines  of  International Atomic  Energy  Agency  (IAEA).  Research  and  development  are  in  progress  on partitioning  technologies,  for  recovery  of  long-lived  radioactive  constituents  and separation/  extraction  of  the  useful  radioisotopes  for  societal  application  for  waste volume reduction, and incineration of long-lived actinides to inactive or short-lived radioactive wastes is likely to obviate the need for a Long-Term Disposal in the decades to come.
- (e) Nuclear Energy Mission announced during Budget 2025-26 intends to create an outlay of INR 20,000 Crores, specific to development of SMRs which will cater to the funding requirement  for  Research  &  Development.  The  mission  of  100  GW  by  2047  and associated fuel cycle activities (includes nuclear waste management) will require an enormous  funding  to  carry  out  its  implementation  which  has  to  be  met  by  extrabudgetary  resources  as  well  as  private  financing.  To  ease  the  massive  funding requirements  for  unprecedented  nuclear  energy  growth,  at  the  policy  level  Nuclear energy's  role  as  part  of  climate  action  is  recognized  in  India's  Climate  Finance Taxonomy (Draft), which will make nuclear eligible for climate finance, thereby easing out the requirement for finance in bringing new nuclear plants and associated fuel cycle facilities.

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