The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) strongly opposes the tabling of the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha. By repealing the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010(CLND), this new Bill dismantles India’s carefully built nuclear safety and accountability framework and opens the most hazardous energy sector to large-scale private and foreign participation.

The Atomic Energy Act 1962 ensured strict public control over civilian nuclear activities due to their strategic and catastrophic risks. The SHANTI Bill replaces this with a profit-driven licensing regime that opens major segments of the nuclear value chain to private operators. This represents a decisive shift towards privatisation of nuclear operations while putting the entire burden of risks and consequences of potential disasters on the people.

By repealing the CLND Act, the Bill removes the operator’s statutory “right of recourse” against reactor suppliers, shielding manufacturers and vendors from liability for defective design or equipment. As a result, the financial burden of nuclear accidents is shifted from profit-making supplier corporations to the victims and the State. The continuation of an operator liability framework capped at 300 million Special Drawing Rights (around ₹3,690 crore) is grossly inadequate to address the scale of damage from any serious nuclear accident.

Actually, since the enactment of the CLND Act, multinational nuclear reactor suppliers have refused to supply reactors or invest in India, in fear of the supplier liability arising out of their faults. The United States has consistently exerted pressure on India to amend the CLNDA, to which the Modi government has now effectively yielded. Even the existing liability cap of ₹1,500 crore per incident, with a possible additional ₹1,500 crore from the Government, was a political compromise linked to the Indo–US Civil Nuclear Agreement of 2008 to accommodate foreign suppliers. Despite disasters like Fukushima, which has already cost over $200 billion, international suppliers continue to demand total immunity, seeking to restrict liability solely to the operator within strict monetary and time limits.

The Bill claims to establish an independent nuclear safety authority, yet simultaneously promotes private participation in the sector and establishes executive control over appointments. It doesn’t provide any statutory tenure and financial autonomy, and creates potential overlap between promotional and regulatory functions undermining genuine regulatory independence. Broad provisions allowing non-disclosure of safety and environmental information in the name of “national security” further erode transparency and public trust.

The aggressive promotion of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and fast-track licensing is particularly alarming. Smaller reactors do not eliminate risks related to radioactive waste, siting, cooling water or accident management.

Despite prioritising private investment, the Bill is largely silent on worker safety, job security and community protection. It contains no binding labour standards, union rights, enforceable safety obligations or statutory guarantees for long-term medical monitoring, rehabilitation and compensation in the event of nuclear or industrial accidents.

A nuclear law that privatises profits, socialises catastrophic risks, weakens liability and regulatory safeguards, dilutes environmental and labour protections, and permits foreign participation without mandatory Parliamentary oversight is unacceptable in a democratic republic.

CITU demands immediate withdrawal of the SHANTI Bill and the referral of the entire issue of “proposed change of liability regime” to a high-power independent committee to examine its veracity with mandatory public hearings, restoration of strict liability provisions including the operator’s right of recourse, establishment of a genuinely independent nuclear regulator, enforcement of robust environmental and labour safeguards, and explicit Parliamentary oversight over foreign participation and strategic nuclear activities.

Issued by
(Tapan Sen)
General Secretary