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NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet’s approval for Atomic Energy Bill, officially titled the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025, which is set to be tabled in the winter session of Parliament, signals a huge policy shift in India’s atomic sector that is expected to accelerate civil nuclear energy production in the country.Proposed amendments to the Atomic Energy Act 1962 and later in liability laws aim to attract private and foreign investment and overcome obstacles in the 2008 Indo-US Nuclear Deal by easing supplier liability concerns (CLNDA), potentially unlocking stalled US projects like Kovvada. Till now, the key stumbling block to US investment in India has been CLNDA, which allows operators to seek recourse from suppliers, deterring US firms like Westinghouse. Legal amendments are expected to address these issues, potentially creating a framework for insurance or govt indemnification and making projects viable for US companies.The amendments are designed to finally implement the stalled Indo-US nuclear agreement, which has led to little progress beyond fuel imports due to liability issues, and enable US reactor construction in India. These nuclear reforms are linked to broader Indo-US trade talks, aimed at boosting bilateral trade and investment, with nuclear cooperation as one of its key pillars. The bill will open up the sector to private players (up to 49% equity) and foreign companies, breaking the long-standing govt monopoly in the sector. It will also consolidate existing laws into a single, comprehensive statute to enhance regulatory clarity and investor confidence and will help India fulfil its goal of creating 100 GW of nuclear power capacity by 2047. The SHANTI Bill will break the domination of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in core activities such as atomic mineral exploration, fuel fabrication, equipment manufacturing and, potentially, certain aspects of plant operations.The trigger for these drastic changes in the legal framework in the nuclear sector was the slow expansion of nuclear power capacity as the technology development phase had to go through an international embargo and technology denial regime, besides facing limited availability of resources. Though India operates the sixth largest nuclear reactor fleet in the world, the present installed capacity of nuclear power is just 8.78 GW (excluding RAPS-1, 100 MW). The share of nuclear power in total electricity generation in the country in 2024-25 was about 3.1%, the govt said in a statement.The indigenous pressurised heavy-water reactor (PHWR) technology has now matured for larger size reactors (700 MW). With the deployment of indigenous 700 MW reactors and 1,000 MW reactors with international cooperation, the present capacity will increase to 22.38 GW (excluding RAPS-1, 100 MW) by 2031-32 on completion of projects at various stages of implementation.The preferred small modular reactor (SMR) technology is the light water reactor-based pressurised water technology. Based on PWR technology, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), a constituent unit of DAE, has initiated design and development of 200 MWe Bharat Small Modular Reactor and 55 MWe Small Modular Reactor, for the repurposing of retiring fossil fuel-based power plants, captive plants for energy intensive industries — such as steel, cement and process industries — and off-grid applications for remote locations. BARC is also developing up to 5 MWth (Megawatt thermal) high temperature gas cooled reactor for hydrogen generation.
