Springboard 2026: Why India's 100GW nuclear dream hinges on small modular reactors.
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Dear reader, as 2025, a year of global tumult and volatility, rolls by, Mint's reporters and columnists look around the corner at what is coming in 2026—to help you know what to expect and prepare for it. Tell us what you think at [email protected]. India’s nuclear energy sector has ushered in the new year with a new commitment, resolve, and imagination.
The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act, 2025, presents a paradigm shift in the architecture of the civil nuclear energy sector for multiple reasons. • It opens up the sector for participation by the private sector, state-owned public sector undertakings (PSUs) and state government entities, besides the Centre, its entities, and central PSUs.
• It acknowledges the crucial role of an empowered regulator in a market shifting from a monopoly to multiple players. • It is sensitive to the special characteristics of the nuclear energy sector, wherein certain technologies and functions, such as enrichment beyond threshold limits, heavy water production, spent fuel management, high-level radioactive waste management, and isotopic separation must arguably remain with the sovereign.
• It anticipates possible developments and requirements for this new market structure to operate by establishing the Atomic Energy Redressal Advisory Council and the Appellate Tribunal. • It retains the citizen-centric values and essence of the now-repealed Acts by seamlessly integrating the extant related provisions of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, within its ambit.
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