The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill was passed in the Indian Parliament on Thursday and became a major change to the nuclear energy policy in the country, allowing access of the sector by the participants. This legislation has allowed the entry of the Indian atomic energy industry by the private companies in the industry, which has hitherto been controlled by the government-owned enterprises. The Bill will also put forward the repeal of Atomic Energy Act of 1962 and Civil Liability on Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act of 2010, a move that will be a significant policy change.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the enactment of the SHANTI Bill was a groundbreaking moment in our technology environment and underlines that the bill will open up to more investment, innovation, and even participation of the private sector in nuclear energy. The Bill gives the opportunity to the private companies to build, own and operate, and even decommission nuclear plants or reactors, under the condition that they are licensed after compulsory safety and radiation exposure permits. It also allows participation by joint ventures, which provides wider possibilities of collaboration between the public and the private organizations.
Among the provisions of the Bill that are important is the abandonment of the current controversial liability clause statement in CLND Act, which had made the operators sue the suppliers when an accident had taken place due to faulty equipment or services. The SHANTI Bill has rationalized the liability limits of operators, according to thermal power capacity of reactors. An example is that the liability of such a reactor with a capacity of 3,600 MW would be ₹3,000 crore and the reactors of 1,500 MW to 3,600 MW would have a cap of 1500 crore, making it more predictable to the operators.
The SHANTI Bill, which was introduced by the Union Minister of State in Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh, is meant to bring considerable amounts of money to the nuclear sector in India.
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