Nuclear recharge: India’s Shanti Bill could revive atomic power but let’s not abandon self-reliance efforts

While there has been a buzz around small modular reactors, which use the usual fission technology, a fusion leap could end the joke about its eternal status as the ‘next big thing’ sooner than many think.

When New Delhi signed its nuclear deal with the US in 2008, it not only secured India’s release from the West’s tech-denial regime imposed for testing nuclear weapons at Pokhran, it also cleared a path for us to go global shopping for nuclear fuel, reactor components and technology.

We got the rights that members of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group have, plus full membership of the Missile Technology Control Regime. We joined the Wassenaar Arrangement on dual-use technologies and materials and the Australia Group on chemical weapons and precursor chemicals. Yet, the generation of nuclear power failed to take off.

By exposing reactor suppliers to statutory damage liability, the 2010 law got in the way. Now that this obstacle is about to be axed—though plant operators could still get their suppliers to bear liability via contracts—and private operators will be allowed into the field, we can expect significantly better odds of nuclear plants coming up.

Critics of the Shanti Act have zeroed in on its cap of 300 million Special Drawing Rights (SDR of the IMF) on the liability of an operator in case of an accident. This is a creation of the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage. The cap’s rationale was that the sum should not exceed what insurers would cover; having it indexed to inflation would have turned it fuzzy over time and made projects harder to insure.

Now that India’s law is aligned with the Vienna norm, New Delhi should join this Convention. India is already part of the global Convention on Supplementary Compensation. Under it, if any signatory has a disaster that requires a payout in excess of 300 million SDR, then all members must pool in funds for the purpose.

We should note that reactor design and materials technology have made safety advances since the failures at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Moreover, plant operators are subject to scrutiny and control by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, which has been given a statutory basis. Modern digital systems also allow the use of real-time safety dashboards. Of course, we must fortify the regulator against the risk of capture by operators; accountability to Parliament and high pay-scales would help.

While nuclear reactors and fuel could be imported (the US recently eased the way for transfers to India), we must not leave our quest for self-reliance in the lurch. India’s own fast-breeder reactor project, which makes use of locally available thorium, is taking too long to move from its pilot to commercial stage. This must change.

We must step up its funding as well as R&D efforts to overcome the technical challenges that remain. The early strides we took in harnessing nuclear energy should be powered up, not allowed to fall off the national agenda. Let’s hedge our bets.