India's nuclear-focused SHANTI Bill completes legislative process

The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill 2025 was tabled in the lower house, the Lok Sabha, on 15 December, and was approved on 17 December. The bill was then presented to the upper house, the Rajya Sabha, where it was approved on 18 December.

President Droupadi Murmu granted assent to the bill - the final stage in the legislative process - on 20 December.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the passage of the bill by both houses as transformational. Ahead of the presidential assent, the Prime Minister wrote on X: "The passing of the SHANTI Bill by both Houses of Parliament marks a transformational moment for our technology landscape. My gratitude to MPs who have supported its passage. From safely powering AI to enabling green manufacturing, it delivers a decisive boost to a clean-energy future for the country and the world. It also opens numerous opportunities for the private sector and our youth. This is the ideal time to invest, innovate and build in India!"

India's nuclear energy programme has up to now been covered by the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010. The 1962 act set the stage for India’s nuclear programme, empowering the government to regulate atomic energy for peaceful purposes, ensuring strict control over research, development, and use of nuclear materials, but some of the restrictions it has imposed - particularly limitations on private sector participation in the nuclear industry - have stood in the way of Indian plans to reach its decarbonisation goals with a target of achieving 100 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity by 2047. Likewise, the 2010 Civil Liability act, while introducing a no-fault liability regime, has also been seen as problematic, giving nuclear operators extensive legal recourse to equipment suppliers in the event of a nuclear incident.

The new bill repeals the two earlier laws and consolidates and modernises India's nuclear legal framework, enabling limited private participation in the nuclear sector under regulatory oversight. It also, amongst other things, grants statutory recognition to India's nuclear regulator, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.

It permits private companies to participate in India’s nuclear sector, including in plant operations, power generation, equipment manufacturing, and selected activities such as nuclear fuel fabrication, including "conversion, refining and enrichment of uranium-235" - up to a threshold value to be set by the government, although "certain activities of sensitive nature" will remain exclusively under government control. The SHANTI Bill - unlike the existing law that imposes a single statutory cap on operator liability - establishes a graded liability framework.

According to World Nuclear Association information, India currently has 24 operable nuclear reactors totalling 7,943 MW of capacity, with six reactors - 4,768 MW - under construction. (The Indian government often classes two units at Gorakhpur where site works have begun as being under construction, although the first concrete for the reactor buildings has not yet been poured.) A further 10 units - some 7 GW of capacity - are in pre-project stages.

Earlier this year, the Indian government set out the key features of its two-pronged Nuclear Energy Mission to achieve 100 GWe of nuclear capacity by 2047, featuring plans for new large capacity reactors as well as small modular reactors.

A request for proposals from 'visionary Indian industries' to finance and build a proposed fleet of 220 MW Bharat Small Reactors issued at the start of this year by government-owned enterprises Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) has been extended to 31 March 2026.