India opens nuclear sector

Parliament on Thursday passed the nuclear energy bill, with the Rajya Sabha giving its nod to the law seeking to open the tightly-controlled civil nuclear sector for private participation.

The Upper House passed the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill by a voice vote, while rejecting Opposition demands to send the bill to a parliamentary committee. It was passed in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Replying to a discussion on the bill, Minister of State, Department of Atomic Energy, Jitendra Singh, said it aims at making India self-reliant in nuclear energy and reducing dependence on other sources of energy. He asserted that nuclear energy is a reliable 24x7 power supply source, which is not so in the case of other renewable energy options.

Stating that the country has already reached 8.9 GW of nuclear energy in 2025, Singh said by 2047, “if we are able to follow the roadmap we have envisaged, we will be 100 GW, and we would be contributing nearly 10 per cent of the energy requirement...”. He also noted that India’s energy requirement will be highly dependent on nuclear sources, with AI coming in a big way.