Overview
- Parliament passed the SHANTI Act with presidential assent in December, consolidating nuclear laws, licensing private participation and giving the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board a statutory footing.
- The law restructures liability by capping operator exposure at ₹3,000 crore for large plants with graded limits for smaller units, limiting recourse against suppliers to contract terms or intentional acts, and layering compensation via up to 300 million SDR and international conventions.
- Section 37 assigns nuclear power pricing to the Union government in override of the Electricity Act, drawing calls to exempt private-to-private deals or redesign tariffs to enable captive and industrial offtake.
- Analysts flag gaps including the absence of a statutory definition of “supplier,” open-ended powers to create additional regulators for “strategic” activities, and questions over the AERB’s selection process and structural independence.
- Legal critics warn that weak dispute-resolution capacity could impede timely compensation in mass-harm cases, while Dr. Anil Kakodkar urges soft loans, scaled-up R&D, a startup ecosystem and a longer-term thorium push to make projects viable.