The Kerala government is revisiting the idea of nuclear power, with a potential plant at Cheemeni, to combat its widening electricity demand-supply gap. This long-standing proposal has consistently met political and public opposition due to environmental concerns in the densely populated state. The electricity board sees nuclear energy, including thorium and SMRs, as crucial for reliable, round-the-clock power generation to meet future targets, despite ongoing political debates and resistance.

The Kerala government is revisiting the idea of nuclear power, with a potential plant at Cheemeni, to combat its widening electricity demand-supply gap. This long-standing proposal has consistently met political and public opposition due to environmental concerns in the densely populated state. The electricity board sees nuclear energy, including thorium and SMRs, as crucial for reliable, round-the-clock power generation to meet future targets, despite ongoing political debates and resistance.

The Kerala government is revisiting the idea of nuclear power, with a potential plant at Cheemeni, to combat its widening electricity demand-supply gap. This long-standing proposal has consistently met political and public opposition due to environmental concerns in the densely populated state. The electricity board sees nuclear energy, including thorium and SMRs, as crucial for reliable, round-the-clock power generation to meet future targets, despite ongoing political debates and resistance.

As the state struggles with a widening gap between electricity demand and its own generation capacity, the Kerala government is once again examining whether nuclear power should become part of Kerala’s energy mix. The latest discussions are centred on the possibility of a nuclear power plant at Cheemeni in Kasaragod.

The idea of putting a nuclear reactor in Kerala is decades old. It has surfaced repeatedly—in different locations, under different governments, and amid changing arguments about the state’s energy future. Each time, however, it has run into a formidable combination of political opposition, public resistance, and questions over whether a densely populated and ecologically fragile state is an appropriate location for a nuclear installation.

The first serious proposal dates back to the late 1970s, when Bhoothathankettu in Ernakulam district emerged as a possible site for a nuclear power station. The proposal was eventually abandoned after strong opposition.

The idea returned in the 1980s, this time in northern Kerala, when Peringome was considered as a site for a nuclear plant. The proposal soon acquired a political dimension within the Left. In the late 1980s, when the E.K. Nayanar government explored the possibility of a nuclear plant in Peringome, the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad opposed the proposal. V.S. Achuthanandan, then CPI(M) state secretary, also sided with the organisation, inviting criticism from within the party. On April 26, 1990, Chornobyl Day was observed in Peringome.

K. Karunakaran's government, which subsequently came into power, had accelerated steps towards the nuclear project. But once again, strong opposition eventually forced the proposal to be dropped.

The Peringome proposal subsequently disappeared, but the search for large-scale electricity generation did not.

Cheemeni in Kasaragod later emerged as a site for a thermal power plant. In the late 2000s, when the LDF was in power, around 2,000 acres of plantation land were identified and surveyed for the project. But that proposal too met strong local opposition and never materialised.

When Kerala began examining nuclear power again, Cheemeni appeared on the shortlist partly because a large tract of land had already been identified for a power project. In 2024, the Kerala State Electricity Board began discussions with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. regarding a possible nuclear project. The initial proposal was for two 220MW units, giving a combined capacity of 440MW, with Cheemeni and Athirappilly among the locations being considered.

The attraction was straightforward. Kerala’s own generation capacity is modest compared with its growing requirements, forcing it to purchase large quantities of electricity from outside the state. The KSEB’s argument was that hydropower could no longer be expanded easily because of environmental constraints, while solar generation is intermittent and wind has limited potential in the state. Nuclear power, in this formulation, offered firm, round-the-clock generation.

But the proposal quickly became controversial, and the KSEB subsequently stepped back from its earlier discussions as political opposition mounted.

The debate also acquired another Kerala-specific dimension: thorium.

Kerala’s long coastline contains monazite deposits, a mineral that contains thorium. In 2023, former electricity minister K. Krishnankutty approached the Centre seeking consideration of a thorium-based nuclear power plant, arguing that Kerala had substantial quantities of thorium-bearing mineral deposits.

The Centre, however, did not respond favorably to the proposition.

By 2025, the KSEB had again begun examining nuclear power, this time against the backdrop of an ambitious target of generating 10,000MW of electricity in the state within five years. At the government’s request, the board submitted a report arguing that nuclear power plants would be necessary to meet the target. It proposed the possibility of installing Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), while leaving the final decision to the government.

Krishnankutty maintained that nuclear power was essential. He also sought the assistance of employees' and officers’ organisations within the KSEB to help allay public concerns and protests and educate people about the proposal.

The renewed interest in nuclear power also coincided with the Union government’s growing emphasis on nuclear energy as part of India’s long-term low-carbon energy strategy.

Now, with the UDF in power, the Cheemeni proposal is back on the political agenda. Power Minister Sunny Joseph has indicated that the government is considering a nuclear project.

The Opposition, however, has made clear that it will oppose the move. CPI(M) leader and Opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan, responding to Joseph’s statement that a nuclear plant could be operated safely at Cheemeni, pointed to the LDF government’s earlier position: “When the proposal was brought forward during the LDF government’s tenure, we had made it clear that we would not pursue it.”

The power minister, nevertheless, says that the government is attempting to build a political consensus around the proposal, citing the acute power shortage facing the state.

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