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India's former nuclear law, which reserved atomic energy entirely to the state for over six decades before being repealed by the SHANTI Act, 2025.
The Atomic Energy Act, 1962 was the statute that governed all aspects of atomic energy in India for more than six decades. Replacing an earlier Act of 1948, it vested in the Central Government exclusive authority over the development, control and use of atomic energy, including the production of nuclear power, the mining and processing of prescribed substances such as uranium and thorium, and the handling of radioactive material. Its defining characteristic was exclusivity: nuclear power generation was reserved entirely to the government and its companies, and private participation was not contemplated. The Act was repealed in December 2025 by the SHANTI Act, 2025, which replaced it along with the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010. It should therefore now be studied as the framework that preceded the current law rather than as operative law.
Type: LawState monopoly — vested exclusive control over the development and use of atomic energy in the Central Government
Prescribed substances — brought uranium, thorium, plutonium and related materials under central control, including their mining and processing
Public sector generation — nuclear power could be generated only by the Central Government or by companies it owned
Secrecy provisions — restricted the disclosure of information relating to atomic energy installations and material
Basis for the AERB — the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board was constituted in 1983 by executive order under this Act, rather than as a statutory body
Later amendments — the Act was amended to permit government companies, and subsequently joint ventures of public sector undertakings, to operate in the sector
Repealed — the Act ceased to operate on the enactment of the SHANTI Act, 2025
Frequency: Asked in UPSC Prelims science and policy questions, now chiefly as background to the SHANTI Act, 2025
India's nuclear programme was conceived as a state enterprise from the outset, shaped by Homi Bhabha's three-stage plan and by the strategic sensitivity of fissile material. The 1948 Act established central control almost immediately after independence, and the 1962 Act consolidated and extended it. That architecture served the programme's early decades but became a constraint once the objective shifted from strategic capability to large-scale power generation, since a state monopoly limited both capital and construction capacity. The 2010 liability Act added a second constraint by deterring equipment suppliers, and the two together held nuclear capacity well below successive targets until the framework was replaced in 2025.
The first Atomic Energy Act is enacted, establishing central control over atomic energy
The Department of Atomic Energy is established
The Atomic Energy Act, 1962 replaces the 1948 Act and consolidates state control
The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board is constituted by executive order under the Act
The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act introduces supplier liability, deterring equipment vendors
The SHANTI Act, 2025 repeals both the 1962 Act and the 2010 Act
The 1962 Act matters for examinations chiefly as the explanation for why India's nuclear sector developed as it did. A statutory monopoly meant that every reactor had to be financed from public resources and built by public agencies, which capped the rate of expansion regardless of demand, and the Act's secrecy provisions kept nuclear operations largely outside the reach of the Right to Information framework. The most durable criticism concerned the regulator: because the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board was created by executive order under this Act rather than by statute, it had no independent legal standing and reported to the Department of Atomic Energy, the same body responsible for promoting nuclear power. The Comptroller and Auditor General flagged this conflict, and international practice after Fukushima moved firmly towards separating safety regulation from promotion. That criticism is precisely what the SHANTI Act addressed by giving the AERB statutory status, which is why the two Acts are best learnt as a single story rather than separately.
Atomic Energy Act, 1962 replaced the Atomic Energy Act, 1948
Vested exclusive control over atomic energy in the Central Government
Nuclear power generation reserved to the government and its companies
Uranium, thorium and plutonium regulated as prescribed substances
The AERB was constituted under it in 1983 by executive order, without statutory status
Criticised for placing the safety regulator under the Department of Atomic Energy
Repealed by the SHANTI Act, 2025 in December 2025
No. It was repealed by the SHANTI Act, 2025, which received presidential assent in December 2025 and also repealed the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010.
Materials such as uranium, thorium and plutonium, whose mining, processing and handling were brought under exclusive central control.
Because it was constituted in 1983 by executive order under this Act rather than by statute, and reported to the Department of Atomic Energy, which is also responsible for promoting nuclear expansion.
The Atomic Energy Act, 1948, enacted shortly after independence to establish central control over atomic energy.
No. Generation was reserved to the Central Government and companies it owned. Private participation became possible only under the SHANTI Act, 2025.