Draft Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Rules, 2026

What it does

These are draft rules, published for consultation on 14 August 2026, under the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025 (Act No. 39 of 2025, the SHANTI Act). The Act itself is not yet in force: it commences on a date the Central Government is to notify, and the site's reading on 28 October 2026 found no such notification. A draft made for consultation is a proposal. It is not law, and it may change before it is made final.

Read for what they propose, the draft rules fill in the licensing design of the Act. They make the licence a single composite licence for building, owning, operating and decommissioning a nuclear power plant, serving uses such as the grid, captive generation, process heat and the production of hydrogen, isotopes or research. They also say how the regulator's authorisations, the licensee's duties to its contractors and the operator's financial security are to work.

Who it binds

Once made final and in force, the rules would bind licensees and applicants for a licence, holders of the regulator's safety authorisations, and the designers, manufacturers, suppliers and contractors who work for a licensee. At the draft stage they bind no one. Their value is in showing what the Department of Atomic Energy intends, so that a project can be planned and the consultation answered.

What has changed, and when

• The SHANTI Act received assent on 20 December 2025 and was published on 21 December 2025. It repeals the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 once it commences.
• The draft rules were published on 14 August 2026. The site's related instruments include the draft regulations of the same year under the Act.
• A draft changes as it goes through consultation, so each rule number mentioned in commentary may move in the final text.

What turns on it in practice

Four proposals in the draft matter to a project, on the site's reading of them.

The first is the supplier question. Draft rule 24 says that a licence for acquiring prescribed equipment is intended only for imported prescribed equipment, and that a licence is ordinarily not intended for a person manufacturing prescribed equipment in the country for use by a licensee. Draft rule 44 puts duties of quality control, quality assurance, procurement control and records on manufacturers and suppliers instead. A domestic fabricator should read the two together.

The second is the contract chain. Draft rule 38 requires the licensee to inform designers, manufacturers, suppliers and contractors of their responsibilities through contracts or other arrangements, and draft rule 49(4) states that this does not relieve the licensee of prime responsibility. The licensee cannot pass the responsibility down by contract, though it can pass the cost where the contract allows recourse.

The third is financial security. Draft rule 77 deals with the security an operator must hold against its liability limit, including where there are several reactors on one site, where the higher category is taken and the security may be given in forms such as pledged shares or bonds at a stated margin. The site's note on the SHANTI Act works through an illustration of the arithmetic.

The fourth is timing. An applicant cannot apply under rules that are not made, and the Act does not yet operate. Project documents for a sponsor, a lender or a supplier are better drafted with conditions tied to commencement and to the final rules, and a draft rule number should not be treated as a fixed obligation.

This sits within the site's work on projects and infrastructure, where the SHANTI Act note is the starting point.