A promise buried in plain sight: How Thorium, 'India's energy future,' turned into a flop

For decades, thorium was supposed to be India's energy ‘Trump card’. Clean, abundant available, and perfectly matched to the country's geology, it was seen as the fuel that could one day free India from imported uranium and fossil fuels. Homi Bhabha built India’s nuclear roadmap around it. And yet, in 2025, India still does not run a single commercial reactor on thorium fuel.

Homi Bhabha's Thorium dream

In the 1950's Homi Bhabha, the "father of India's nuclear program," envisioned a three-stage nuclear energy plan that included plans to leverage India's vast thorium reserves and achieve long-term energy security. Former Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam also spoke about it often.

As Dr Srijan Pal Singh, author and former advisor to President Kalam puts it: "The total energy contained in all the world’s uranium, petroleum and coal put together is equal to the energy contained in India’s thorium alone".

Talking to WION's parent company ZEE News, Dr Singh said, "India’s thorium is our biggest treasure lying right under our feet," and "We should have utilised it".

What happened to India's Thorium plans? Science succeeded, deployment did not

It wasn't a failure of research. Indian scientists proved the thorium pathway step by step. Thorium oxide fuel pins were tested in pressurised heavy water reactors. Uranium 233 bred from thorium powered the KAMINI reactor at Kalpakkam. Fuel fabrication, reprocessing, and irradiation studies were all completed.

What never happened was the final jump. The Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, designed specifically for thorium, has remained on paper for more than two decades.

Beaten at its own game? A breakthrough from elsewhere

Now, Clean Core Thorium Energy (CCTE) has done what India planned for decades. The US based private startup recently unveiled ANEEL, a commercially deployable thorium-based fuel designed to work in pressurised heavy water reactors, including in Indian reactors.

The irony is hard to miss. India laid the foundation, built the reactors, and validated the fuel cycle. The final, commercial step happened abroad.

Not a defeat

Experts point to a mix of causes behind the delay in commercial deployment of Thorium. They explain that Thorium is not fissile on its own and requires complex breeding and reprocessing. After the 2008 nuclear deal made uranium easier to access, urgency faded. Funding slowed. Institutional caution set in. Thorium became a future goal rather than a present mission.

Dr Singh believes that pause has cost India dearly. He argues that "We should immediately set up a task force, create a venture fund that does not go only to IITs and the BARC, but also supports our private enterprises".