SHANTI Act, 2025

The SHANTI Act, 2025 is India's new main law for nuclear energy. SHANTI stands for Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India. It replaced two older laws: the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010. Its biggest change is that private companies can now build, own and run nuclear power plants in India, under a licence and strict safety rules.

Why was a new law needed?

Nuclear power gives electricity all day and night, and it does not release greenhouse gases while running. India wants a lot more of it. But for over 60 years, only the government and its companies could run nuclear power plants. There was not enough public money or speed to grow fast. On top of that, the 2010 liability law worried foreign reactor sellers, so very few foreign projects moved ahead. The government felt one modern law was needed to fix all of this together.

How big is India's nuclear power today?

Nuclear power gives only about 3% of India's electricity (3.1% in 2024-25). As of December 2025, installed nuclear capacity was about 8.78 GW (gigawatts; 1 GW = 1,000 MW). The government expects this to reach about 22.38 GW by 2031-32. The long-term goal is 100 GW by 2047, under the Nuclear Energy Mission. As of October 2026, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (the top body that makes India's nuclear policy) estimated that private companies could build about 30 GW of this 100 GW. That would need about ₹7.5 lakh crore of private investment.

Where did it come from?

India's nuclear laws grew in steps:

• Atomic Energy Act, 1948: India's first nuclear law, passed just after Independence.
• Atomic Energy Act, 1962: Replaced the 1948 law. It gave the Central Government near-total control over nuclear energy. Only the government or its companies could produce nuclear power.
• Amendments in 1986, 1987 and 2015: Slowly allowed government companies and their joint ventures (for example, NPCIL with NTPC) to take part. The best-known such joint venture is ASHVINI (Anushakti Vidhyut Nigam Ltd). As of January 2025, NPCIL holds 51% of it and NTPC holds 49%. It runs the Mahi Banswara nuclear project in Rajasthan (four units of 700 MW each).
• Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 (CLNDA): Set rules for paying victims if a nuclear accident happens.
• SHANTI Act, 2025: The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 16 December 2025. The Lok Sabha passed it on 17 December and the Rajya Sabha on 18 December 2025. It received the President's assent on 20 December 2025.

What can private companies now do?

Under the Act, private companies can get a licence to build and operate nuclear plants and generate power. Only a company registered in India can get a licence. A foreign company cannot hold one directly. It can take part only through an Indian company or a permitted partnership. Private licensees can also make equipment and do some fuel work, such as fabricating nuclear fuel and enriching uranium-235 up to a limit that the government sets.

Every activity that involves radiation must first get safety approval from the regulator. Reports around the Act's passage said foreign investment in such companies would be capped at 49% [Unverified].

What stays only with the government?

Some parts of the nuclear fuel cycle are very sensitive for national security. So the Act keeps these only with the Central Government or bodies it fully owns:

• enrichment or separation of isotopes of prescribed substances (unless the government notifies otherwise);
• handling of spent fuel: reprocessing, recycling and separating radioactive elements;
• management of high-level radioactive waste;
• production and upgrading of heavy water;
• any other activity the government notifies.

Mining of uranium and thorium (the raw materials for nuclear fuel) also stays only with the government and its companies.

Think of it like a big hospital where private doctors may now work, but the blood bank and the pharmacy's most dangerous drugs stay under the hospital's own control.

A stronger regulator

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) checks that nuclear plants are safe. It was set up on 15 November 1983 by an executive order under Section 27 of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962. It was not created by its own law, so critics said it was not independent enough. The SHANTI Act gives the AERB statutory status, meaning it now exists directly under a law made by Parliament. The Act also sets up a clear system to grant, suspend or cancel licences and safety permissions.

How does nuclear liability work under the Act?

"Liability" means who must pay if something goes wrong. The Act keeps the idea that the operator (the company running the plant) must pay victims, even if the operator was not careless. This is called no-fault liability. What changed:

• Graded caps: The old law had one cap for every plant. The new Act links the operator's maximum liability to the size of the plant, listed in its Second Schedule. It ranges from about ₹100 crore for small reactors (under 150 MW) to ₹3,000 crore for the largest plants (over 3,600 MW).
• Total limit per accident: The maximum liability for each nuclear incident is the rupee value of 300 million SDR (Special Drawing Rights), and the government can raise it by notification. When damage goes beyond the operator's cap, the government covers the rest up to this limit.
• Supplier liability removed: Under the old CLNDA (Section 17(b)), an operator could claim money back from a supplier who gave faulty equipment. The SHANTI Act (Section 16) allows this "right of recourse" only when a written contract says so, or when someone deliberately caused the damage.

How are disputes and claims handled?

• Claims Commissioners decide ordinary compensation claims.
• A Nuclear Damage Claims Commission handles cases of severe nuclear damage.
• An Atomic Energy Redressal Advisory Council helps settle disputes.
• The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL, set up under the Electricity Act, 2003) hears appeals.

The SHANTI Rules and Regulations

A law gives the broad plan; rules fill in the day-to-day details. In August 2026, the Department of Atomic Energy released the Draft SHANTI Rules, 2026 and Draft SHANTI Regulations, 2026 for public comments (the deadline was 4 September 2026). The drafts propose a single composite licence covering construction, ownership, operation and decommissioning (safe shutting down) of a plant.

They propose that a licence be issued within 180 days, and related permissions within 60 days, after an application is admitted. The drafts also ask every operator to set aside money in advance for decommissioning and for cleaning up the site afterwards. Operators must also keep insurance or other financial security to cover their liability for accidents. Some stakeholders, such as NTPC, suggested shorter time limits.

Commonly confused concepts

• Atomic Energy Act, 1962 vs SHANTI Act, 2025: The 1962 law kept nuclear power only with the government. The 2025 law opens power generation to private players but keeps the sensitive fuel cycle with the government. The 1962 Act now stands repealed.
• CLNDA, 2010 vs SHANTI Act: Both put liability on the operator. CLNDA had one operator cap (₹1,500 crore) and a supplier recourse clause. SHANTI has graded caps and allows supplier recourse only by contract or for deliberate acts.
• AERB vs DAE vs NPCIL: The DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) is the government department that makes nuclear policy. NPCIL is the government company that builds and runs most nuclear plants. The AERB is the safety watchdog that checks all of them.
• Operator vs supplier: The operator runs the plant (like NPCIL). The supplier sells the reactor or parts (like EDF or Framatome).

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Safety and accountability: Critics say linking the cap to plant size, not to the actual harm, may leave victims under-compensated after a serious accident. They argue this weakens the "polluter pays" principle, where the one who causes harm pays for it.
• Supplier liability: Supporters say removing supplier liability matches global practice (the Convention on Supplementary Compensation puts liability on the operator only) and was needed to attract foreign reactors. Critics point out that faulty equipment was a major concern after the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984.
• Regulator independence: Statutory status helps, but experts say the AERB also needs its own budget, staff and freedom from the DAE, which also promotes nuclear power.
• Way forward: Clear and quick final rules, strong emergency planning, public trust near plant sites, and a steady order pipeline for reactors so that Indian industry can invest in making parts.

Concepts to Know

• Nuclear fission: Splitting a heavy atom (like uranium) into smaller parts. This releases a lot of heat, which boils water to make steam that turns turbines and makes electricity.
• Fuel cycle: All the steps nuclear fuel goes through: mining, making fuel, using it in a reactor, and then handling the used ("spent") fuel and waste.
• Enrichment: Raising the share of uranium-235 (the type that splits easily) in uranium. Power reactors need low enrichment; weapons need very high enrichment, which is why this step is sensitive.
• Heavy water: Water in which the hydrogen atoms are a heavier form called deuterium. India's older reactors use it to slow down neutrons so fission continues.
• Special Drawing Rights (SDR): An international reserve asset created by the IMF. Its value is based on a basket of five currencies. It is used in treaties so that amounts do not depend on one country's currency.
• Statutory body: A body created by a law passed by Parliament or a state legislature, not just by a government order.
• Right of recourse: The right of someone who has paid compensation to recover that money from another party who was responsible.