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India's new nuclear law, which repeals the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the nuclear liability Act of 2010, opens nuclear power to private participation and makes the AERB a statutory regulator.
SHANTI stands for the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025. It is the most far-reaching change to India's nuclear law since independence, because it does not merely amend the existing framework but replaces it: the Act repeals both the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, and puts a single unified statute in their place. Three changes define it. It permits private companies and joint ventures, for the first time, to build, own, operate and decommission nuclear power plants under licence. It restructures the liability regime, capping the operator's liability and removing supplier liability. And it gives the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board full statutory status as an independent regulator. The Act received presidential assent in December 2025.
Type: LawRepeal and replacement — repeals the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, creating a single unified framework
Private participation — private companies and joint ventures may build, own, operate and decommission nuclear power plants under a government licence
Reserved functions — enrichment of nuclear material, production of heavy water, and management of spent fuel beyond on-site storage remain with the Central Government
Statutory regulator — the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board is given full statutory status, made accountable to Parliament and decoupled from the Department of Atomic Energy
Liability regime — operator liability is capped and supplier liability is removed
Capacity goal — supports India's target of 100 GW of nuclear capacity by 2047, against roughly 8.8 GW at present
Frequency: A high-probability current-affairs and science-policy topic since December 2025
International nuclear liability conventions channel all responsibility for an accident to the plant's operator, so that a victim has one clearly identified party to claim against and equipment suppliers face no open-ended exposure. India's Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 departed from that norm by giving the operator a right of recourse against a supplier whose defective equipment or substandard services caused the accident. The provision was a direct response to the Bhopal gas disaster, where the foreign parent company's liability had proved difficult to establish. Its practical effect, however, was that foreign and domestic vendors declined to supply equipment for Indian reactors, because they could not price a liability with no defined ceiling and no time limit. That deadlock is why so few new reactors were contracted after 2010. The SHANTI Act resolves it by removing supplier liability and capping the operator's, which restores the international channelling principle — and reopens the accountability question that the 2010 Act had been written to answer.
It is like deciding whether a taxi passenger injured in a crash sues the driver or the company that made the brakes. Channelling everything to the driver makes claims simple and keeps brake makers in the market — but it also removes their reason to worry.
| Aspect | Under the earlier framework | Under the SHANTI Act, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Governing statutes | Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 | A single unified Act replacing both |
| Who may operate a nuclear plant | Central Government and its companies only | Private companies and joint ventures, under licence |
| Supplier liability | Operator had a right of recourse against the supplier | Supplier liability removed |
| Operator liability | Limited but contested in scope | Capped |
| Status of the AERB | Constituted by executive order, under the Department of Atomic Energy | Full statutory status, accountable to Parliament and separated from the DAE |
| Enrichment and heavy water | Government | Remains with the Central Government |
India generates only about 8.8 GW from nuclear power and has set itself a target of 100 GW by 2047, a gap that cannot be closed on public investment alone, which is the economic case for the Act. Two structural obstacles had blocked expansion for over a decade: nuclear generation was legally reserved to government companies, so no private capital could enter, and the supplier liability provision of the 2010 Act deterred vendors from supplying equipment at all. The SHANTI Act removes both. The separation of the AERB from the Department of Atomic Energy addresses a long-standing criticism, including from the Comptroller and Auditor General, that India's nuclear safety regulator reported to the very department responsible for promoting nuclear expansion — an arrangement no other major regulatory field would accept. Against this, critics argue that removing supplier liability while simultaneously admitting private operators weakens accountability at precisely the moment when more parties are entering the sector. Both strands belong in a balanced answer.
SHANTI: Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025
Presidential assent in December 2025
Repeals the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010
Allows private entities to build, own, operate and decommission nuclear plants under licence
Reserved to the Centre: enrichment, heavy water production, spent fuel beyond on-site storage
AERB given statutory status, accountable to Parliament, separated from the Department of Atomic Energy
Operator liability capped; supplier liability removed
Supports the target of 100 GW nuclear capacity by 2047, from about 8.8 GW now
Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India. The Act was passed in 2025 and received presidential assent in December that year.
Both the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, replacing them with a single unified framework.
Yes. For the first time, private companies and joint ventures may build, own, operate and decommission nuclear power plants under a government licence.
Enrichment of nuclear material, production of heavy water, and management of spent fuel beyond on-site storage at the plant.
The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, previously constituted only by executive order under the Department of Atomic Energy, was given full statutory status, made accountable to Parliament and separated from the DAE.