India's double rush: Nuclear reactors and AI data centres without a national debate

By Shankar Sharma* 

Two recent developments, seemingly unrelated, point to a deeper flaw in India's development paradigm.

The first is the extraordinary urgency with which the country appears to be pursuing a massive expansion of nuclear power. NTPC has invited Expressions of Interest from global consulting firms for developing large-capacity Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR)-based nuclear projects of 1,000 MW and above. The implication is unmistakable: India is preparing for a large fleet of nuclear reactors within a relatively short period.

The second is the equally enthusiastic race to establish AI-driven data centres across the country. State governments are competing with generous fiscal incentives, subsidised electricity, concessional land, water support, tax reimbursements and even desalination assistance to attract these facilities. Gujarat's recently announced Data Centre Policy is only one example of this trend.

Viewed independently, each initiative is presented as a symbol of technological progress. Viewed together, however, they raise a far more fundamental question: has India seriously examined whether our finite natural resources can support both simultaneously?

Ironically, the two developments are closely intertwined. Data centres require enormous quantities of reliable electricity, and nuclear power is increasingly being projected as the preferred source to meet that demand. Yet nuclear power itself is among the most resource-intensive forms of electricity generation, requiring vast investments, extensive land acquisition and, most importantly, enormous quantities of freshwater for cooling.

Climate change further complicates this equation.

As Europe recently experienced another severe heatwave, France was compelled to temporarily shut down three nuclear reactors and reduce output from several others because river temperatures had become too high. Environmental regulations prohibited further discharge of heated cooling water into already stressed rivers. This is not an isolated technical issue but a reminder that nuclear power is itself vulnerable to rising temperatures and water scarcity.

India can scarcely afford to ignore this lesson.

Several Indian cities are now among the world's highest heat-risk urban centres. Gujarat, Karnataka and many other states already face increasing water stress. Groundwater depletion has become an everyday reality across much of the country. Against this backdrop, committing scarce water resources simultaneously to large fleets of nuclear reactors and energy-intensive data centres deserves far greater public scrutiny than it has received.

The concerns surrounding data centres extend beyond electricity consumption. Globally, growing opposition has emerged over their impact on local communities through escalating power demand, groundwater extraction and land use. Several projects in the United States have been delayed or halted due to such concerns, while policymakers in many jurisdictions are beginning to reconsider the pace and scale of expansion.

India, unfortunately, appears to be moving in the opposite direction.

Public policy today overwhelmingly emphasises incentives for investment while paying relatively little attention to cumulative environmental costs. One report suggests that groundwater levels around a large data centre in Uttar Pradesh have fallen dramatically, forcing local communities to depend increasingly on private water suppliers. Whether or not similar impacts become widespread elsewhere, such examples deserve serious independent investigation before this model is replicated across the country.

The larger issue is not whether India should develop nuclear power or AI infrastructure. Both technologies may have a legitimate role in a modern economy. The real question is whether public policy is being framed after rigorous examination of their long-term societal costs.

Have comprehensive cost-benefit analyses been placed in the public domain? Have cumulative impacts on land, freshwater, biodiversity and local livelihoods been objectively assessed? Have independent experts, civil society organisations, affected communities and state governments been meaningfully consulted? Or are these decisions being driven primarily by technological optimism and investment projections?

These questions become even more pertinent because the financial risks of nuclear power differ fundamentally from those of data centres. While private investors may bear much of the capital cost of data centres, the direct and indirect costs associated with nuclear power—including public financing, infrastructure, safety, waste management and long-term liabilities—are ultimately borne by society at large.

Development cannot be measured merely by the number of reactors commissioned or data centres inaugurated. It must also be evaluated by its impact on ecological security, resource equity and the well-being of future generations.

India's consistently poor performance in global environmental rankings should itself serve as a warning that our environmental governance requires strengthening rather than further dilution. A nation already confronting severe water stress, rising temperatures and increasing ecological degradation cannot afford to make strategic decisions without transparent public deliberation.

Civil society, academic institutions and the media also have an important responsibility. Infrastructure of this scale should not be viewed merely through the prism of investment announcements or GDP growth. Democratic societies owe it to themselves to debate whether scarce public resources are being allocated in ways that genuinely maximise social welfare.

It is often said that societies ultimately get the development they choose to accept. The question before us is therefore a simple but profound one: are we consciously choosing this path after informed public debate, or merely drifting towards it without understanding its long-term consequences?

Before India commits itself irreversibly to this twin expansion of nuclear reactors and AI data centres, the country deserves nothing less than a comprehensive national conversation on the true costs—and benefits—of this new developmental trajectory.

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*Karnataka-based power & climate policy analyst