Shashi Tharoor Criticizes SHANTI Nuclear Bill as "Dangerous Leap" with Inadequate Safety Measures

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday criticized the government's nuclear energy bill, describing it as a "dangerous leap into privatized nuclear expansion" without sufficient safeguards.

During a debate in the Lok Sabha on the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, Tharoor emphasized that profit motives should not supersede public safety, environmental protection, and justice for potential victims.

The former Union minister claimed the proposed legislation is "ridden with exceptions, heavy on discretion and largely indifferent to public welfare," quipping: "I am not sure whether it is a nuclear bill or an unclear bill."

Tharoor warned that the bill's current form represents a hazardous move toward privatized nuclear expansion with inadequate protections in place, stressing that "the pursuit of capital" cannot override critical safety and environmental concerns.

"The name SHANTI means peace and sustainability. Let us ensure that this name is not a cruel irony in the aftermath of a preventable disaster. The promise of transforming India ought not to conflate the risk of scarring India," stated the Thiruvananthapuram MP.

Taking aim at the BJP-led government, he remarked that while they speak eloquently about harnessing nuclear energy, they appear to have failed to invest sufficient effort in crafting legislation that is coherent and rigorous.

Tharoor acknowledged India's nuclear legacy, noting that Jawaharlal Nehru established the foundations for India's nuclear program, while Manmohan Singh successfully completed the 2008 Indo-US nuclear deal, which ended India's isolation in this domain.

"This bill now confronts us with a disappointing reversal, as a vision that once expanded horizons gives way to ambiguity and deepens uncertainty as to where India's nuclear framework is headed," he said.

"We have mastered nuclear fusion and fission but not, apparently, legislative precision. The SHANTI Bill is a milestone but for the wrong reasons," the Congress leader added.

Tharoor argued that the bill requires comprehensive restructuring rather than minor amendments, suggesting it should have been referred to a joint parliamentary committee for thorough review.

He criticized the bill's preamble for characterizing nuclear energy as "a clean and abundant source for electricity and hydrogen production," calling this language "dangerously misleading" as it ignores serious risks from radioactive leaks, nuclear waste, and potential catastrophic accidents.

The former diplomat pointed out that India's uranium reserves are limited, and while the country possesses significant Thorium-232 reserves, thorium-based reactors remain far from widespread implementation.

"The full life cycle of nuclear fuel from mining to waste disposal is neither clean nor sustainable. We must be honest with the people of India about what we are asking them to accept," Tharoor emphasized.

He expressed concern about provisions allowing "any other company or any person expressly permitted by the central government" to apply for licenses to establish and operate nuclear facilities, effectively opening the entire nuclear sector to private entities with unclear qualification requirements.

Particularly troubling, Tharoor noted, is the bill's allowance for single composite licenses covering multiple activities across the nuclear fuel cycle, enabling one entity to control everything from mining to waste management.

"This means one entity could control mining, fuel fabrication, reactor operation and waste handling. Such concentration of control in a single operator or corporate group heightens systemic risk exponentially rather than containing that risk," he warned.

Tharoor cautioned that profit-driven private entities handling fissile and radioactive materials significantly increases the likelihood of nuclear incidents and accidents.

On the economic front, he highlighted that the liability cap remains at approximately USD 460 million (Rs 3,910 crore), unchanged for 15 years despite inflation and lessons from disasters like Fukushima.

"For context, the Fukushima disaster cleanup cost has already exceeded USD 182 billion.... Chernobyl's total economic impact has exceeded USD 700 billion. Yet we propose to cap liability at less than half a billion dollars? This is grossly inadequate," Tharoor stated.

He concluded that this liability framework is "not a safety net" but rather "a trapdoor through which victims could fall into decades of legal battles and inadequate compensations."