The Atomic Energy Act, 1962

What it does

The Atomic Energy Act, 1962 is the statute under which India has organised its nuclear programme. It gives the Central Government control over atomic energy: the development, control and use of it, the working of the minerals from which it is drawn, and the safety of the people who work with radiation or live near it. The Act works through the Central Government and the bodies it controls. It is not a licensing statute for private enterprise, and for most of its life nuclear power generation has been carried on by government-owned entities.

The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025 (Act No. 39 of 2025, called the SHANTI Act) repeals this Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010. That is a repeal that has not yet taken effect. The SHANTI Act comes into force on a date the Central Government is to notify, and the site's own reading of the Department of Atomic Energy's records on 28 October 2026 found no commencement notification. Until one issues, this Act continues to govern, and the page below is written on that footing.

Who it binds

The Act binds the Central Government's own atomic energy establishments and the persons who deal with prescribed substances, radioactive materials and radiation-generating equipment. It also binds anyone who works, or seeks to work, in the field the Act reserves. Because the field is reserved, the practical question for a private business has always been whether a given activity is open to it at all, and not only what conditions apply once it is.

Rules and orders made under the Act carry much of the detail on radiation protection, safety and the handling of prescribed substances. They remain relevant for as long as the Act does, and the SHANTI Act provides for existing rules to be saved until they are superseded.

What moved out of it

Nothing has moved out of this Act yet, because its replacement is not in force. When the SHANTI Act commences, the whole of the 1962 Act goes, together with the 2010 liability Act. The new Act keeps some activities with the Central Government: enrichment, spent fuel management and heavy water production remain reserved to it or to a body it wholly owns. What it opens is the building, owning, operating and decommissioning of nuclear power plants, for which an Indian company, alone or in a joint venture, may hold a licence.

The regulator changes character as well. Under the new Act the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board is deemed constituted by statute, with its powers set out in the Act itself.

What has changed, and when

• The Act has stood since 1962 and has been amended from time to time over the decades. Those amendments are not set out here.
• On 20 December 2025 the President gave assent to the SHANTI Act, which was published in the Gazette of India on 21 December 2025. Section 91 of that Act repeals this one and saves action already taken and existing rules until they are superseded.
• The SHANTI Act commences on a date to be notified by the Central Government, and different dates may be fixed for different provisions. None had been found by 28 October 2026. On 14 August 2026 the Government published draft rules under the new Act for consultation.

What turns on it in practice

The practical point is timing. A business planning for private nuclear power under the SHANTI Act has no licence to apply for until that Act commences, and a project plan that assumes a commencement date is assuming a notification that has not been made. The draft rules show the intended shape of the licence, but a draft binds no one.

For a transaction advised in the meantime, the safe course is to treat the 1962 Act and the 2010 liability Act as the law that applies today, and to build any contract so that it works under either framework: a condition tied to commencement, an allocation of liability that does not depend on a particular cap, and a clause on what happens if the supply or operating licence is delayed.

The site's note on the SHANTI Act, under its projects and infrastructure work, sets out the licensing and liability design of the new Act, and this Act is named there as the instrument it replaces.