Discuss the significance of the Nuclear Energy Mission and the SHANTI Act, 2025 in India's clean energy transition. What legal and liability challenges must be addressed to attract private investment in nuclear power?

Nuclear power offers the low-carbon baseload that variable renewables cannot supply. The Nuclear Energy Mission announced in Union Budget 2025-26 [2] and the SHANTI Act, which received Presidential assent on 21 December 2025 [1], together mark the deepest recasting of India's nuclear governance since the Atomic Energy Act, 1962.

Significance for the clean energy transition

• Scale of ambition: the Mission anchors the target of 100 GW nuclear capacity by 2047, from roughly 8 GW today, aligning the power mix with the Net Zero by 2070 pledge [2][3].
• Technology push: a ₹20,000 crore outlay funds R&D for at least five indigenously designed SMRs operational by 2033, including the BSMR-200, SMR-55, and a High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor for hydrogen production [2][3].
• Industrial decarbonisation: NPCIL has invited industry proposals for 220 MW Bharat Small Reactors for captive use, targeting hard-to-abate sectors like steel and cement [3].
• Legal consolidation: SHANTI repeals the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the CLND Act, 2010, replacing them with a single framework that grants statutory recognition to the AERB and permits private participation in nuclear facilities [1][4].

Legal and liability challenges ahead

• Liability calibration: SHANTI replaces the single statutory cap with a graded operator liability regime scaled to installation type (Second Schedule) [4]; supplier-side recourse must be defined predictably, since ambiguity under CLND long deterred vendors.
• Insurance depth: domestic risk-pooling capacity remains thin for graded, installation-specific exposures.
• Regulatory autonomy and capacity: a newly statutory AERB needs staffing and independence commensurate with diversified ownership [1].
• Bankability: clarity on fuel supply, safeguards, licensing timelines, land acquisition and tariff contracts will determine actual capital flows [5].

The Mission supplies the capital and technology roadmap; SHANTI supplies the legal gateway. Their promise now rests on subordinate rules that make liability calculable and regulation credible. Handled well, nuclear energy can become the dependable spine of a Viksit Bharat powered by clean, secure and affordable electricity.