Washington

TheUS nuclear industry is set to make a comprehensive submission to India on the draft rules and regulations to implement the SHANTI Act, which has opened up the atomic energy sector for private participation.

Last week, the Department of Atomic Energy released the draft rules and regulations of the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act and sought comments by September 4.

The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), which led a delegation of US nuclear industry representatives to India earlier this year to explore opportunities in the civil nuclear sector, held discussions on Thursday with legal experts in India and the Nuclear Energy Institute based here.

“USISPF is coordinating a comprehensive industry submission to the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India (GOI) by the September 4 deadline,” the USISPF said in a social media post. USISPF also held a virtual briefing for its Nuclear Industry Committee on the recently released draft SHANTI rules and regulations. “The virtual session convened senior industry leaders from across the nuclear value chain and covered: key provisions of the Draft SHANTI Rules and Draft SHANTI Regulations - what they mean for industry; implications for private sector entry, licensing, liability, and project structuring; and areas requiring industry attention and potential feedback to the government,” the USISPF said. It said expert guest speakers Suhaan Mukerji of Delhi-based PLR Chambers and Ted Jones, Senior Director for National Security and International Programmes at Nuclear Energy Institute, addressed the virtual session. The draft rules are the first detailed steps taken by India to open up the nuclear sector to private players, laying down licensing, insurance, and approval-related procedures while retaining government control over sensitive activities. The SHANTI Act opens the civil nuclear sector in India to private companies and joint ventures, allowing them to build, own and operate nuclear plants, decommission them, and take up nuclear research and development. It also allows private players to manufacture nuclear fuel and use ionising radiation for non-electricity-related work with medicines, agriculture, and other industries.

India has set a target to generate 100 GW of nuclear power by 2047 and set up at least five indigenous Small Modular Reactors (SMR), which are advanced nuclear fission plants that can produce up to 300 megawatts of electricity by 2033.