Rarely does a piece of legislation recalibrate not only a nation's industrial future but also the moral, economic, and geopolitical foundations of a technology long burdened by fear, over-securitisation, and ideological inertia. India's SHANTI Bill, the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Technology for India, is such a moment.
This is not merely a law that opens nuclear power to private participation. It is a structural correction to the post-Cold War nuclear order, one that seeks to re-legitimise peaceful nuclear power as a democratic, market-enabled, climate-realistic instrument of national development and global stability.
At a time when the world is discovering often painfully that renewables alone cannot sustain modern economies, SHANTI confronts an uncomfortable truth: without firm, scalable, carbon-neutral baseload power, neither climate commitments nor industrial competitiveness can be met. In doing so, it positions nuclear energy not as an ideological choice, but as an unavoidable strategic necessity.
From State Monopoly to Capitalised Accountability
For over six decades, India's civilian nuclear sector remained locked within a sovereign monopoly, shaped by historical anxieties, international isolation, and a legitimate emphasis on national security. While this ensured strategic control, it also produced structural stagnation: limited capital, slow capacity addition, and minimal technological diversification.
SHANTI marks a decisive break.
For the first time, private enterprises are legally permitted to build, own, operate, and decommission nuclear facilities, including reactors, fuel-cycle infrastructure, and downstream services, under stringent regulatory oversight. Foreign participation capped and conditional is no longer taboo but structured, enabling access to advanced reactor designs, manufacturing know-how, and long-term patient capital.
This shift introduces what may be called capitalised accountability: private efficiency operating within sovereign guardrails. It is a model increasingly necessary for infrastructure sectors where the scale of investment exceeds what public balance sheets alone can sustain.
Fixing the Liability Paralysis: The Single Most Critical Reform
No issue has crippled global civilian nuclear expansion more than unbounded supplier liability. By transferring open-ended legal risk to equipment vendors, earlier frameworks rendered nuclear projects commercially uninsurable, scaring away precisely the firms capable of delivering safe and advanced technology.
SHANTI corrects this distortion.
Primary liability now rests with operators, aligning India with international nuclear norms.
Supplier exposure is capped and time-bound, bringing predictability to contracts.
A dedicated nuclear liability adjudication mechanism replaces uncertainty with institutional clarity.
This is not a dilution of safety. On the contrary, it strengthens it by ensuring that responsibility is clearly defined, insurable, and enforceable, a prerequisite for any mature high-risk industry.
Nuclear Economics in an Era of Energy Realism
The global energy transition is entering its second, more sober phase. The first phase was aspirational. The second is constrained by physics, grids, and geopolitics.
Consider the numbers:
Coal is environmentally untenable.
Gas is geopolitically volatile and increasingly expensive.
Renewables, while essential, impose hidden costs through storage, land use, and grid balancing.
Nuclear, at scale, delivers firm power with lifecycle emissions comparable to wind.
With modern construction methods, localisation, and standardised designs, nuclear Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) can fall into the USD 60–70/MWh range by the early 2030s competitive with firmed renewables and significantly cheaper than imported LNG-based power.
India's stated ambition of 100 GW nuclear capacity by 2047 implies cumulative investment in the range of USD 120–150 billion, catalysing one of the largest clean-energy industrial ecosystems of the century.
Small Modular Reactors: The Quiet Revolution
Perhaps the most under-appreciated aspect of SHANTI is its explicit embrace of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).
SMRs fundamentally alter nuclear economics:
Lower upfront capital
Factory-based manufacturing
Enhanced passive safety
Suitability for industrial clusters, desalination plants, and remote regions
By allocating dedicated funding and opening the door to private innovation, SHANTI positions India not merely as an SMR user, but as a designer, manufacturer, and exporter particularly to energy-hungry developing economies unable to finance giga-scale reactors.
Beyond Electricity: A New Doctrine of Integrated Peaceful Nuclear Utilisation
The most profound intellectual leap embedded in SHANTI lies beyond power generation. The Bill implicitly advances what may be termed an Integrated Peaceful Nuclear Utilisation doctrine, spanning five critical domains:
1. Health Security
Nuclear medicine and radiopharmaceuticals are indispensable for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Domestic isotope production enhances resilience and affordability while reducing dependence on fragile global supply chains.
2. Water and Urban Survival
Nuclear-powered desalination offers a viable solution for coastal megacities facing water stress, delivering clean water at industrial scale without carbon penalties.
3. Food Systems
Radiation-based food preservation and seed treatment increase shelf life, reduce chemical use, and enhance export competitiveness quiet but transformative gains in food security.
4. Industrial Decarbonisation
High-temperature nuclear heat can decarbonise cement, fertiliser, and steel—sectors responsible for a disproportionate share of global emissions.
5. Hydrogen Economy
Nuclear-enabled hydrogen production offers continuous, low-carbon supply essential for aviation, shipping, and heavy industry.
In aggregate, nuclear energy becomes human development infrastructure, not merely an energy source.
How SHANTI Differs from Every Other Nuclear Model
Globally, nuclear energy has followed four dominant models:
France: State-centric, fiscally strained
United States: Private but regulatorily fragmented
Russia: Export-driven, geopolitically leveraged
China: Techno-statist and scale-obsessed
SHANTI introduces a fifth model: democratic nuclear capitalism private participation under sovereign oversight, with export potential but without geopolitical coercion.
This hybrid approach may prove uniquely attractive to middle-income democracies seeking clean baseload power without surrendering strategic autonomy.
Three Futures: What SHANTI Could Become
Optimistic Scenario (2035–2050)
India emerges as a top three civilian nuclear economy, exporting SMRs, nuclear services, and safety systems across Africa and Southeast Asia. Nuclear becomes the backbone of industrial decarbonisation.
Baseline Scenario
Steady capacity addition, modest private participation, and nuclear stabilising the grid alongside renewables.
Failure Scenario
Regulatory opacity, public trust deficits, and cost overruns undermine investor confidence reducing SHANTI to a symbolic reform.
Which future prevails will depend not on intent, but on institutional competence, regulatory independence, and safety culture.
A Statesman's View: Why This Moment Matters
Having observed how over-centralisation often stifles innovation while diffused responsibility erodes accountability, it is evident that SHANTI's rebalancing is both necessary and overdue. Strategic sectors do not fail because of lack of intent, but because of flawed structures. SHANTI corrects one such flaw.
A Blueprint for the Peaceful Nuclear Century
In an age defined by climate urgency, energy insecurity, and industrial competition, the question is no longer whether nuclear power should play a role but whether democracies can govern it intelligently.
SHANTI dares to answer in the affirmative.
If implemented with scientific rigor, regulatory integrity, and public transparency, it could become the most consequential peaceful nuclear reform of the 21st century, offering the world a replicable model where nuclear power is no longer feared, fetishised, or frozen—but responsibly harnessed for human progress.
In doing so, SHANTI does more than reform an industry. It reclaims nuclear energy as a civilisational instrument of stability, dignity, and development.
[Major General Dr. Dilawar Singh, IAV, is a distinguished strategist having held senior positions in technology, defence, and corporate governance. He serves on global boards and advises on leadership, emerging technologies, and strategic affairs, with a focus on aligning India's interests in the evolving global technological order.]
