Kamal Ghorui
MUMBAI: India’s new Shanti Act gives American firms an opportunity to collaborate in the fast-growing area of nuclear energy, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, New’s Delhi’s ambassador in Washington, has said.“As interests of the India-US partnership continuously converge and align in this space, American firms can now compete on a level playing field for one of the world’s largest nuclear markets,’’ Kwatra wrote recently in The Hill, an American newspaper and digital media company based in Washington DC. The Shanti Act (Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India) was cleared last month to repeal Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010.Kwatra pointed out that the act opened up the Indian nuclear sector energy to private and foreign investment. It also aligns India’s liability regime with international norms while protecting its non-proliferation commitments, regulatory autonomy and sovereign oversight. “With maturity, India is joining the widely adopted template of global operative norms in the civil nuclear energy sector,’’ Kwatra wrote.According to him, India’s energy demand will grow faster than any major economy’s over the next decade. Its nuclear capacity now is around nine gigawatts, with a target of 100 gigawatts by 2047.Kwatra listed many potential collaborations that are now viable. These include partnerships involving advanced reactors, small modular reactors, new technology streams — including in the field of nuclear fusion — integration of new compute capabilities in nuclear power generation systems, fuel services, component manufacturing partnerships and safety systems.
