Critically evaluate the SHANTI Act, 2025 as a legal instrument for liberalising India's nuclear energy sector.

Q. Critically evaluate the SHANTI Act, 2025 as a legal instrument for liberalising India's nuclear energy sector. (15 marks, 250-350 words)

The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act, 2025 — which received presidential assent on 20 December 2025 — consolidates the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 into a single regime permitting regulated private participation [1][2]. It is an indispensable enabler of the Nuclear Energy Mission's 100 GWe-by-2047 target, though its liberalising promise remains contingent on implementation [3].

Strengths as a liberalising instrument - Ends the state monopoly: private entities may now build, own, operate and decommission nuclear power plants under regulatory oversight — a structural break from the DAE–NPCIL-only model [1]. - Rationalises liability: supplier liability is removed and operator liability is capped by plant capacity, aligning India with international nuclear liability conventions and unblocking the vendor reluctance that stalled foreign reactor deals after 2010 [1]. - Statutory status for the AERB answers a long-standing criticism that the regulator lacked independence from its promoter ministry [1][2]. - Unlocks capital for the SMR push: BARC's three indigenous designs — BSMR-200 (220 MWe), SMR-55 and the 5 MWth HTGCR for hydrogen — need financing at a scale the exchequer alone cannot supply for the target of at least five SMRs by 2033 [3].

Limitations and concerns - Removing supplier liability dilutes the deterrent against defective equipment, shifting risk onto operators and, ultimately, victims. - Capacity-linked compensation caps may prove inadequate against a severe accident, raising environmental-justice questions. - Regulatory independence on paper needs matching financial and staffing autonomy; a thinly resourced AERB cannot police a multiplied fleet. - Liberalisation stays partial — fuel cycle, enrichment and reprocessing remain state-controlled, limiting private entry largely to generation. - The Act is silent on land acquisition, public acceptance and spent-fuel management, the real chokepoints at project sites.

On balance, SHANTI is a necessary and overdue legal reform: it removes the liability and ownership barriers that kept nuclear capacity stagnant. Its value will be realised only if backed by a genuinely resourced regulator, a credible insurance pool and transparent community engagement — converting statutory intent into the clean baseload that net-zero by 2070 demands.

(~330 words)

Sources: 1. PRS Legislative Research — Summary of the SHANTI Bill, 2025 — private ownership/operation, removal of supplier liability, capacity-linked operator liability cap, statutory AERB 2. The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill — PIB document, December 2025 — consolidation of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and CLND Act, 2010; regulatory architecture 3. Department of Atomic Energy, Parliament Question reply on progress under the Nuclear Energy Mission (23 July 2026), PIB — 100 GWe by 2047, five indigenous SMRs by 2033, BSMR-200 / SMR-55 / HTGCR designs by BARC