New Delhi

President Droupadi Murmu has given her approval to the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, which was cleared by Parliament in the Winter Session.

According to an official notification issued on Saturday, the President’s assent brings the new legislation into force.

The SHANTI Bill consolidates and replaces the existing legal framework governing India’s civil nuclear sector and marks a significant policy shift by allowing participation of private entities. It seeks to remove long-standing regulatory hurdles that had restricted the sector’s expansion.

With the enactment of the law, the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 stand repealed. These laws were widely seen as limiting investment and growth in nuclear power generation.

Under the new framework, private companies as well as joint ventures will be permitted to build, own, operate and decommission nuclear power plants, subject to licensing and oversight by the government.

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However, the legislation clearly retains strategic and sensitive activities—such as uranium and thorium mining, fuel enrichment, isotopic separation, spent fuel reprocessing, management of high-level radioactive waste, and production of heavy water—under the exclusive control of the central government and its public sector entities.