Holtec International, the US nuclear technology company that already runs a components plant in Dahej, is now scouting Gujarat for a second, far bigger facility: one built to manufacture small modular reactors (SMRs) rather than just the heat-exchange equipment it currently makes there. According to ThePrint, the company was expected to finalise land for the new plant within weeks of a February 2026 interview with CEO Kris Singh, and Whalesbook reports the plan would shift the company’s Gujarat footprint from component fabrication to producing full reactor systems.
Why now
The push follows India’s 2025 SHANTI Act, which for the first time lets private companies build and operate nuclear power capacity, a sector historically reserved for state-run NPCIL. Washington cleared the way on its side too: in March 2025 the US Department of Energy authorised Holtec to share unclassified SMR technology with its Indian arm, Holtec Asia, and with domestic partners Tata Consulting Engineers and L&T. Singh has framed the ambition in blunt terms, telling ThePrint that even 200 Indian-built SMRs would electrify barely a third of the roughly 600 districts he sees as potential sites – a signal of how large a market the company thinks it is chasing.
The reactor at the centre of the plan, the SMR-300, is rated at 300 megawatts each; Holtec’s pitch is that a pair of units can generate 600 MWe on a footprint of around 30 acres, small enough to slot into sites that couldn’t host a conventional plant. Design approval from India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board was, as of the February interview, expected to take roughly six months.
What it means for Gujarat
Gujarat is already India’s most industrialised state and has spent the past two years courting semiconductor, data-centre and green-hydrogen investment; a nuclear-equipment manufacturing base would add a new, high-precision category to that list, with the kind of skilled engineering and fabrication jobs that don’t show up in typical factory employment counts. Dahej and the wider Bharuch-Vadodara industrial corridor already host heavy chemical and process-equipment manufacturing, which is likely why Holtec is staying in the state for its expansion rather than starting elsewhere. For residents, the near-term impact is indirect – construction and skilled-hiring activity around whichever site is chosen – with any actual power generation years away, since SMRs of this kind are not yet operating commercially anywhere in India.
Whalesbook reports that Holtec itself carries negative free cash flow and significant leverage, and nuclear projects in India have a long history of slipping regulatory and construction timelines. Land for the Gujarat facility had not been formally confirmed as acquired at the time of the most recent reporting.
Outlook
Watch for two things: confirmation of the actual Gujarat site once land is finalised, and AERB’s design-approval timeline, which will be the first real test of how fast the SHANTI Act’s private-nuclear framework can move in practice. If Holtec’s Gujarat plant does get built, it would make the state home to one of the first privately built nuclear-manufacturing facilities in India’s history.
Sources: ThePrint, Whalesbook
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.