Overview
- Parliament’s SHANTI Bill is now law with presidential assent, clearing private companies to build nuclear power plants in India.
- Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said nuclear power is best suited to deliver steady, high-capacity electricity for energy‑hungry AI data centres.
- He highlighted small modular and micro reactors producing roughly 15–30 MW in containerized units for faster deployment across railways, which draw power at about 700 locations, and in remote regions such as Ladakh and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
- Vaishnaw cited newer passive safety designs, including systems using materials like lead and molten salts that enable safe shutdown without external power.
- He said domestic manufacturing of reactors is underway, pointed to IEA projections of sharply higher electricity demand by 2030, and noted rising data‑centre investment alongside a draft national framework to streamline new facilities.