SHANTI Act 2025 Receives Presidential Assent on December 20: India Opens Nuclear Energy Sector to Private Players, Replaces 63-Year-Old Atomic Energy Act

SHANTI stands for Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India. The Act's core purpose is to open India's nuclear energy sector to private participation for the first time since independence. It replaces the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 (which gave the government a monopoly over nuclear materials and technology) and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, consolidating India's nuclear legal framework. The Act allows Indian private companies to obtain licences for nuclear power generation and uranium enrichment up to prescribed limits.

The Atomic Energy Act 1962 vested all rights over atomic minerals (uranium, thorium) in the Central Government and prohibited private entities from owning, producing, or dealing with prescribed substances. This created a government monopoly — only NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited) could build and operate nuclear plants. This severely limited capacity addition: India has only ~7 GW of nuclear capacity vs China's ~55 GW. The private sector's capital, technology partnerships, and construction speed were unavailable under the 1962 framework.

The Act explicitly carves out all weapons-related nuclear processes (uranium enrichment beyond specified limits, plutonium reprocessing, weaponisation-related research) as exclusive government domain — no private licence can be issued for these activities. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) receives statutory recognition as an independent safety regulator (separate from the Department of Atomic Energy) to provide regulatory oversight of all private nuclear operations. The Act also requires all private operators to comply with India's safeguards agreements with the IAEA.

AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board) is India's nuclear safety regulator, established in 1983 under an executive order of the President. Its critical limitation was that it operated under the same Atomic Energy Act as the DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) — meaning the regulator and the regulated entity were under the same parent authority. The SHANTI Act gives AERB statutory independence, removing this conflict of interest and aligning India with international best practices (IAEA standards require safety regulators to be functionally independent from entities they regulate).

India has committed under the Paris Agreement to achieve 50% of its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 and net zero by 2070. Nuclear energy is crucial because unlike solar and wind, it provides baseload (24/7) power unaffected by weather. India's current nuclear target is 100 GW by 2047. Private sector participation under the SHANTI Act can accelerate capacity addition by mobilising private capital (estimated INR 10–15 lakh crore required for 100 GW), enabling faster reactor construction, and facilitating technology partnerships with global reactor vendors (Westinghouse, EDF, Rosatom) without government-to-government negotiations.