India’s nuclear expansion and SHANTI Act creating new space for global industry partnerships: Dr Jitendra Singh

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) A high‑level US industry delegation met with Union MoS for Science & Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh on Monday to discuss private investment and industry collaboration in India’s nuclear sector.

Dr. Singh highlighted “significant scope for India–US collaboration in advanced areas such as micro-reactors, AI-enabled nuclear safety systems, scientific computing, nuclear energy modelling and institutional capacity building.”

The interaction focused on India’s ambitious Nuclear Energy Mission, recent policy reforms enabling greater private sector participation, and the expanding scope of India–US cooperation in clean energy and critical technologies.

The minister informed the delegation that India has recently enacted the SHANTI Act, 2025, to facilitate greater participation of the private sector, including foreign participation, in the nuclear energy sector.

The reform is expected to create a more enabling ecosystem for investment, industrial collaboration, manufacturing partnerships and technology cooperation aligned with India’s Nuclear Energy Mission, he said.

India is also moving ahead with plans for development of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), supported by an allocation of nearly Rs 20,000 crore, the minister mentioned.

The discussions also reviewed progress in several ongoing India–US collaborative initiatives including the proposed Westinghouse AP1000 project at Kovvada and cooperation under the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Energy Working Group (CNEWG).

Further cooperation in hydrogen production and integrated energy systems, machine learning and AI applications, rare earth collaboration, and high-intensity superconducting proton accelerator technologies through Fermilab partnerships were also discussed.

The meeting covered progress in the LIGO-India project being jointly implemented by the Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Science & Technology in collaboration with the US-based LIGO Laboratory and the National Science Foundation.

India aims to increase its nuclear power capacity from the present 8.8 GW to 100 GW by 2047 through a phased and carefully planned expansion strategy.

—IANS

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