SHANTI Bill: Redrawing the nuclear energy roadmap

he Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill replaces a fragmented and dated legal architecture with a comprehensive statute integrating safety regulation, licensing, enforcement liability and dispute resolution.

- Anil K Antony

It grants statutory authority to the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, strengthens lifecycle oversight of nuclear facilities and clarifies accountability at every stage of construction, operation and decommissioning.India’s installed nuclear capacity today stands at roughly 8 GW. The country aims to raise this to 22 GW by 2032 and 100 GW by 2047. This ambition builds on the strides India has already made in renewable energy. The success of renewables brings structural chal-

lenges. Solar and wind generation are inherently variable, dependent on weather, seasons and time of day. Storage technologies still face limitations in providing long duration baseload supply at the scale required. Energy-intensive industries, data centres, metro systems, etc, require assured, uninterrupted electricity. Nuclear energy provides that assurance.