Safety, security and safeguards are the three pillars of responsible nuclear energy expansion. Evaluate how far South Asian nuclear programmes meet these principles.

South Asia has two nuclear-armed states outside the NPT, India and Pakistan. It also has a newcomer, Bangladesh, which recently signed a civil nuclear MoU with the US. That MoU pledges the "highest standards of safety, security, safeguards and non-proliferation" [1]. Measured against these three pillars, the region's civil programmes do reasonably well, but the record is uneven.

Safety: preventing accidents

• (+) India's AERB got statutory status under the SHANTI Act, 2025 [3]. Bangladesh set up a separate regulator, BAERA (2013), and asked the IAEA for an IRRS peer review [5].
• (−) For decades AERB had no statutory backing. The NSRA Bill, 2011, brought in after Fukushima, was criticised because the Atomic Energy Commission chairman would sit on the safety council, which is a conflict of interest [4].
• (−) The SHANTI Act lets private firms enter nuclear power while setting tiered liability caps of ₹100–3,000 crore [3]. This raises questions about who is accountable if something goes wrong.

Security: preventing theft and sabotage

• (+) Bangladesh hosted an IAEA IPPAS mission. It reviewed physical protection, transport and computer security [6].
• (−) Pakistan's past record of proliferation (the A.Q. Khan network) still hurts trust in nuclear security across the region.

Safeguards: verifying peaceful use

• (+) India placed its designated civilian facilities under IAEA safeguards (INFCIRC/754, in force 2009) and signed an Additional Protocol [2].
• (+) Pakistan's supplied facilities come under item-specific INFCIRC/66 safeguards, which cover only the listed facilities and materials [7].
• (−) Coverage is partial. Military facilities in India and Pakistan stay outside IAEA safeguards because neither has joined the NPT [7].

Regional cooperation

• (+) The India–Russia–Bangladesh MoU (2018) on Rooppur gives Bangladesh Indian training and regulatory support [8]. It shows good practice can spread across borders.

Verdict

South Asia largely meets the three pillars for civil power. It only partly meets them overall, because regulators have been weak on independence and safeguards stop at military facilities. The way forward:

• Make regulators independent in practice, not just on paper.
• Hold regular IAEA peer reviews (IRRS, IPPAS) for every programme.
• Build a regional safety forum on the Rooppur three-way model.

These steps would let nuclear power support SDG 7 (clean energy) and SDG 13 (climate action) without adding to risk.