Nuclear recharge: India’s Shanti Bill could revive atomic power but let’s not abandon self-reliance efforts

By adopting the Sustainable Harnessing of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (Shanti) Act of 2025, which subsumes and replaces both the Atomic Energy Act of 1962 and Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act of 2010, India is set to align its legal framework for nuclear power generation with standard global practices. Since this move could give atomic reactors a role in our transition to clean energy, it is welcome.

While there has been a buzz around small modular reactors, which use the usual fission technology, a fusion leap could end the joke about its eternal status as the ‘next big thing’ sooner than many think. When New Delhi signed its nuclear deal with the US in 2008, it not only secured India’s release from the West’s tech-denial regime imposed for testing nuclear weapons at Pokhran, it also cleared a path for us to go global shopping for nuclear fuel, reactor components and technology.

We got the rights that members of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group have, plus full membership of the Missile Technology Control Regime. We joined the Wassenaar Arrangement on dual-use technologies and materials and the Australia Group on chemical weapons and precursor chemicals.

Yet, the generation of nuclear power failed to take off.By exposing reactor suppliers to statutory damage liability, the 2010 law got in the way. Now that this obstacle is about to be axed—though plant operators could still get their suppliers to bear liability via contracts—and private operators will be allowed into the field, we can expect significantly better odds of nuclear plants coming up.