The Presidential assent for the SHANTI Act (Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India) is the first of its kind and represents another decisive change in India’s largely unilateral Energization Policy. Up to now, India has kept her Nuclear Energy Policy and her energy security as a state monopoly and now the country will have to cede that security to the market. For the first time, the country’s shamelessly exporting its nuclear security. For the Act’s proponents, the law aims to make nuclear power ‘climate-ally clean’. However, the reality of the situation is far from the ambition of the Act. By October 2025, India’s total installed electricity capacity will be 505 GW, of which nuclear power will be 8,180 MW (1.74%). This is a far cry from the 44.53% and 38.65% thermal and renewables (especially solar and wind), respectively. This performance gap is a perennial issue that has plagued India. In 1960, the IAEE (International Atomic Energy Agency) forecasted that by the year 2000 India will be producing nuclear power in the order of 43.5 GW. India missed this target by an overwhelming 85%. These numbers are a poor reflection of the reality of the Act’s ambition, showing an abysmal disconnect from the current prospects of the industry.
For more on nuclear crisis management in South Asia, see Crisis Management in Nuclear South Asia – IndiaDecode.
Notwithstanding this historical stagnation, the government s Nuclear Energy Mission has set a target of 100 GW of capacity by 2047. However, global trends and economic figures, point to the leap as improbable. From between 1997 to 2022, the share of nuclear energy of global electricity generation fell from 16.7% to 9.2%. The financial case for nuclear expansion also has a weak and strained basis. The World Nuclear Industry Status Report states, for solar energy, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is between $36 and $44/mwh, while for onshore wind, it is between $29 and $56/mwh. For nuclear power, the LCOE is too prohibitive, between $112 and $189/mwh. The “back-end” costs, apart from generation, are also significant. The decommissioning of a reactor ranges from $500 million to $2 billion, and it also takes, on average, 20 years to complete.
Allowing private players into a sector associated with fissile material and possible weaponization will drastically change the SHANTI Act’s impact on the security landscape in India. Friends of the Earth India and the National Alliance of People’s Movements state that the profit-driven motives of private companies impact the fail-safe requirements needed for nuclear safety. India has already documented the human impact of the nuclear cycle. Indian Doctors for Peace and Development conducted a study near the Jadugoda Uranium Mines that demonstrated that far more local people experience severe congenital deformities, sterility, and cancer than people who live just thirty kilometers away. The Act will worsen the risks of losing such control to new efficiencies.
One of the most concerning elements of the SHANTI Act is the reduction of the financial costs of a major catastrophe. A major SHANTI profit is capped at a concerningly low $460 million liability (₹3,910 crore) for nuclear accidents. In comparison, the $470 million settlement for the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy is mind-boggling, not to mention the $10.5 billion liability cap in the developed world. In the event of a real-life catastrophe, the actual costs of the liability cap would be uncontrollable, like the damage and costly cleanup of the $182 billion Fukushima disaster in Japan. Also, the Act is removing the “right of recourse” for the equipment suppliers, which states that if a faulty or substandard piece of equipment used in a design leads to an accident, the equitipent manufacturer has no liability, leaving the financially ruinous cleanup and compensation to the Indian taxpayer.
India’s Parliament opens nuclear sector to private companies – civil nuclear power reform and safety concerns. India’s Parliament approves bill to open civil nuclear power sector to private firms (AP News)
The SHANTI Act reduces public accountability by shortening health-related compensation claims to three years despite the radiation-induced illnesses long latency. The Act also places sole government control over filing negligence claims. The Act’s suspicious alignment with legislation passed days later in the U.S. seems to confirm the outside pressure to grant foreign vendors legal immunity. Overall, the SHANTI legislation framework seems to prioritize foreign corporations’ diplomatic interests over the legal, physical, and monetary interests of the people of India.
