N-legislation SHANTI Bill has fully solved third-party liability issue: Holtec CEO

With the new nuclear power legislation - Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025 - India has joined the mainstream of global nuclear energy and commerce, says Kris Singh, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of US-based nuclear technology company Holtec International, in a telephone interview with Sudheer Pal Singh.

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Edited excerpts:How do you look at India's new nuclear energy legislation and the market here for nuclear power?

· The global business community believes that India has certainly gotten its act together, and its economy, under the current government, is poised for an even faster rate of growth. At the heart of it all lies energy. The SHANTI Bill that has just been cleared by Parliament shows that the Indian government is responding to the call from the international investors that the country's nuclear sector is emerging as the most hospitable area for them to invest in. Before this Bill, the investors used to say they do not want to go to India because the liability is so large that even a single error could wipe them out. So, you can say that India is now joining the mainstream of nuclear energy generation and commerce. Although the Bill does not explicitly address the extent of private capital that would be allowed to flow into nuclear, I hope the government will move to privatise nuclear gen-

eration completely so that it does not have to put in public money to build plants. In this new scenario, the government's role will be to sponsor research and development (R&D), provide security to the infrastructure, and to ensure that private companies are operating nuclear plants with world-class safety and security.

So, you are saying the government should not be a majority shareholder in nuclear projects?