In a landmark move for India's energy future, the Rajya Sabha passed the Sustainable Harnessing of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill by voice vote. The passage followed a four-hour debate where the government rejected multiple opposition amendments, including one to send the legislation to a parliamentary panel for further review. This new law signifies a fundamental transformation in how India governs its nuclear power sector.
A Shift from Executive Discretion to Statutory Safety
The core of the SHANTI Bill is its decisive move away from a framework that relied heavily on executive discretion and post-accident accountability. Previously, nuclear safety oversight under the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act of 2010 was shaped by broad administrative rules. An official involved explained that these laws treated safety primarily as a responsibility after damage occurred, not as a proactive governance requirement.
The new legislation embeds safety oversight directly into law across the entire lifecycle of an atomic power plant. It grants the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) clear statutory authority to inspect facilities, investigate incidents, and issue binding directions. Crucially, regulatory actions like suspending or cancelling operations for safety violations no longer depend on executive discretion.
Opening Doors for Private Investment and Scaling Capacity
A pivotal change introduced by the bill is the allowance for private participation in India's civil nuclear sector, which has been tightly controlled by the government until now. This reform is seen as essential for India to meet its ambitious clean energy goals by 2047.
Energy experts highlight the necessity of this shift. Anujesh Dwivedi, a partner at Deloitte India, pointed out that India has added only about 8GW of nuclear capacity over decades. Scaling this up to the targeted 100GW by 2047, and potentially 300GW or more by 2070, requires major legal and regulatory reforms that the SHANTI Bill seeks to address. Continuing with the old framework would make it difficult for nuclear energy to replace thermal power in the long term, he noted.
Proactive Prevention and a Consolidated Legal Regime
The bill introduces a "pragmatic civil liability regime for nuclear damage" and fundamentally recasts the regulatory framework. It separates "permission to operate" from "permission to operate safely," mandating both a licence and an independent safety authorisation. Any activity with radiation exposure risk—from construction and operation to transport, decommissioning, and waste management—will now require explicit safety approval.
Furthermore, the law consolidates regulation, enforcement, civil liability, and dispute resolution within a single statute. This is designed to reduce legal complexity and compliance uncertainty. Accident prevention is enhanced by legally recognizing serious risk situations as nuclear incidents, even if no actual damage has occurred yet.
While opening the sector, the bill keeps core functions like fuel enrichment, spent-fuel reprocessing, and heavy water production exclusively under central government control. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the passing of the bill, calling it a "transformational moment for our technology landscape." The SHANTI Bill aims to establish a statutory, lifecycle-based regulatory regime that ensures continuous safety compliance, moving India's nuclear ambitions firmly into a new era.
