India has underlined its ambitious plans to expand nuclear energy with a minister saying the country will produce three times more nuclear as it looks at multiple options for lowering its carbon footprint and meeting Paris climate goals.

The issue of producing more nuclear power in the next 10 years was discussed at a meeting of minister of state Jitendra Singh and visiting US deputy secretary of energy David Turk, the Times of India reported.

The newspaper said Mr Singh told the US delegation that India will produce more than three times its current level of nuclear power with its installed capacity is expected to increase from almost 7GW today to 22 GW by 2031 as more commercial nuclear power plants are brought online. An International Energy Agency report said the country’s installed capacity could increase to 31-36 GW by 2040. Nuclear generation was about 40 TWh in 2019, which could increase to 222-247 TWh by 2040.