Draft Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Regulations, 2026

What it does

These are draft regulations published in August 2026 for comment under the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025, the statute that the Department of Atomic Energy calls the SHANTI Act. A draft has no force of law. It states what the rule-maker proposes, so that those affected can respond before a final text is made.

According to the site's note on the Act, the draft rules and draft regulations were put out for consultation on 14 August 2026 and were open for comment until 4 September 2026. The note records that no final version has been found. The draft regulations are therefore a statement of direction and not a statement of what the law requires.

The Act itself is described on its own page on this site. It repeals the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, and it comes into force only on a date the Central Government notifies. The draft regulations follow the Act, so they cannot have effect before the Act does.

Who it binds

Nobody, until a final text is made and the Act is in force. If the regulations are made in a form close to the draft, they would bind the persons the Act addresses once it commences: licensees for nuclear power plants, holders of safety authorisations, and manufacturers and suppliers of equipment who owe duties under the scheme of the Act. This page does not describe the content of particular draft provisions, because a draft can change between publication and final form.

What has changed, and when

The draft was published for consultation on 14 August 2026, according to the site's note on the Act. The comment period ended on 4 September 2026. Since then the site has not found a final version or a notification bringing the Act into force. Anyone relying on a provision of the draft should confirm at the date of reliance whether a final text exists.

What turns on it in practice

For a business planning to enter the nuclear power sector, or to supply equipment to a licensee, the draft is a guide to the direction the rules may take and is not a basis for a contract. The site's note on private nuclear licences and operator liability uses the draft rules to show how the Act may be applied to a composite licence, to insurance and to the position of suppliers, and it says in terms that the final rules may differ from the draft.

A contract signed now, before the final text and the commencement of the Act, should be drafted so that it can adjust to the final position. A condition that depends on a future notification, or a clause that allocates the risk of a change in the rules, does the work that the unsettled law cannot do. The firm's work in the projects sector treats the Act, the draft rules and these draft regulations as a set that has to be read together and re-read when anything is notified.