India plans to reduce the size of exclusion zones around nuclear plants to free up land for reactor expansions, three officials familiar with the matter told Reuters. Currently all Indian NPPs have a minimum buffer of about 1 km around reactors where no habitation or economic activity permitted to minimise radiation risks.
India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) have approved an “in principle” plan to reduce these buffers, according to the three officials who “requested anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media”.
The changes are likely to be included in final rules that are due to be published in the next few months. In 2025, India opened its nuclear generation sector to private and foreign companies and aims to expand nuclear capacity to 100 GWe by 2047 from about 8 GWe at present.
Reuters said the in-principle agreement between AERB and DAE to reduce the exclusion zones and the extent of the reduction had not been previously reported. The proposal was not part of the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act adopted by parliament in December 2025, which opens the nuclear energy sector to private participation for the first time. However, it is expected to be set out in detailed rules that have yet to be released, according to Reuters, which noted that neither AERB or DAE had responded to their queries.
The revisions to the buffer zones would cut the land needs by half for large reactors and by nearly two-thirds for small units, potentially allowing two to three times more capacity on the sites, according to an internal presentation reviewed by Reuters. With smaller exclusion zones, a 10-unit nuclear complex with 700 MWe reactors could be set up within less than 700 hectares, the presentation showed. India’s existing nuclear plants typically use around 1,000 hectares of land.
Small modular reactors could also be placed in industrial zones for captive use, two of the officials said. Cutting exclusion zones would also allow existing plants to add new reactors more easily using shared infrastructure, the presentation said. The change is aimed at easing land constraints, a key hurdle, as the private sector – including companies such as Tata Power, Adani Power and Reliance Industries – looks to invest in the sector.
The three officials said the exclusion zones are being reduced because of safer reactor technologies, in line with global norms followed by countries such as the US and France that do not fix exclusion distances. Moreover, strict siting rules – including distance from human settlements and safety risks – along with lengthy land acquisition processes, often exceeding four to five years, make identifying new sites difficult.
However, the proposal is likely to face opposition given that nuclear power has faced public opposition in some places in India despite no major accident record.
Some Indian lawmakers, while debating the opening of the nuclear sector in parliament in December, said the reforms prioritised private investment over safety and flagged risks including radiation and nuclear waste. Opposition leaders said the legal amendments risked weakening nuclear safety safeguards by diluting liability protections, easing reactor siting rules and expanding private participation without stronger independent oversight.
“The reduction is a meaningful shift that has been under discussion for nearly 18 months,” said R Srikanth, the engineering dean at the National Institute of Advanced Studies. “Data from existing plants show that radiation levels around them are significantly lower than natural background levels in parts of coastal Kerala and Tamil Nadu.” He added that positive news about the Indian nuclear power has been kept hidden from the public. “We need to overcome this all-pervasive sense of secrecy around civilian nuclear power plants,” he said.
