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OPINION AUGUST 07, 2026 | The Indian Eye 10

Atoms for Al:

The Promise of SHANTI Act

HINA PANDEY

he International Atomic En-
ergy Agency (IAEA) host-
Ted its first-ever International
Symposium on Artificial Intelligence
(AI) and Nuclear Energy in Decem-
ber 2025. The symposium aimed to olina. This is in line with President ue to drive and dominate the growth Determined Commitments (NDCs)
bring together relevant stakeholders Trump’s Executive Order on ‘Accel- economics and strategic autonomy under the Paris Agreement, to “…
in both fields to discuss the pros- erating Federal Permitting of Data for India’s domestic and foreign pol- further reduce carbon emissions by
pects of cooperation ahead. The Di- Center Infrastructure (2025)’. icy imperatives. For instance, semi- 47 per cent by 2035 and to achieve
rector General of the IAEA, Rafael All this is not lost on India, conductors, AI, quantum technol- a cumulative installed electricity ca-
Grossi, in his speech at the opening which recently passed the Sustain- ogies, supercomputing, blockchain, pacity of 60 per cent from non-fossil
ceremony, reiterated that, “…AI rev- able Harnessing and Advancement and cloud infrastructure as long-term sources by the same year”.
olution…was always going to choose of Nuclear Energy for Transforming policy investments will not only shape Thus, this emerging promise
nuclear energy as a partner; it was an India Act (SHANTI Act). The Act’s national capacities but also contrib- of ‘Atoms for AI’ is serious for In-
inevitable partnership, the only ques- preamble paragraph notes, “…ac- ute to the nation’s future readiness. dia, more so because in 2025, India
tion was when…”. celerated growth of Artificial Intelli- As per official sources, the cur- achieved a “…milestone of 50 per
The idea that nuclear energy is gence, high-performance computing rently operational data centres in cent of its cumulative electric power
well placed to support rising electric- and large-scale data-driven research Maharashtra, Hyderabad, Bengal- installed capacity from non-fossil fuel
ity demand from the growth of AI requires stable, reliable, abundant, uru, Gujarat, etc., are already wit- sources…”. This is five years ahead
data centres is not new. There is now clean and round-the-clock power nessing an increase in electricity de- of the 2030 target under the NDC.
a growing and accepted consensus supply,…can be ensured through ex- mand, “from about 375 MW in 2020 Therefore, while it may seem unre-
that nuclear power, particularly the panded deployment of nuclear ener- to around 1500 MW in 2025…”. lated, the future of India’s sustain-
Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), gy…” An important aspect that, for Further, the same demand is expect- able energy landscape in the back-
are uniquely positioned to meet the some time, has escaped the attention ed to reach 13.56 GW by 2031–32. drop of AI-driven comprehensive
baseload power requirements of AI in the wide-ranging discussion sur- The SHANTI Act has opened up national growth is not just connected
data centres. rounding nuclear energy expansion pathways for private firms to ex- but deeply intertwined. From today
In the US, tech giants such as in India is this very promise of an- plore, build and support the growth to the Viksit Bharat of 2047, a time-
Meta, Microsoft, Google and Am- ticipated, mutual growth of nuclear of India’s nuclear energy ecosys- line of 21 years, needs to be utilised
azon have signed contracts with energy and AI towards the Viksit tem. SMRs, in particular, are be- optimally, as the scope for lead time
nuclear power reactor developers/ Bharat goal of 2047. ing viewed as an important part of is zero. The SHANTI Act, though,
utilities such as TerraPower-Oklo, There is no denying that India a reliable power solution for these has set the tone for the promise of
Constellation Energy, Kairos Pow- is embracing AI at an unprecedent- strategic sectors. SMRs, being less nuclear power for AI.
er, Energy Northwest and Dominion ed pace not only to support indus- space-intensive, offer flexibility in
Energy to support data centre opera- trial-scale applications but also to site selection and land procurement Dr. Hina Pandey is a Research Fellow
tions by a certain timeframe. In June transform everyday living. India’s and are deemed optimal for power- at Manohar Parrikar Institute for De-
2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS) assertive embrace of AI implies in- ing remotely located data centres. fence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA),
signed a contract with Talen Energy cluding one–sixth of humanity in the In theory, this new energy play- New Delhi
(TLN.O), lasting until 2042, to sup- AI ecosystem, with the aspiration of book encompassing two transfor- Views expressed are of the author and
ply up to 1,920 megawatts of elec- transitioning from being an ‘AI user mative forces of technologies, i.e., do not necessarily reflect the views of
tricity from its Susquehanna plant in nation’ to an ‘AI provider’. Its domes- SMRs and AI, seems perfect. How- the Manohar Parrikar IDSA or of the
Pennsylvania to AWS data centres. tic AI market, “currently worth about ever, SMRs are yet to become com- Government of India
More recently (July 2026), the $7.6 billion, is forecasted to grow to mercially viable to power data cen-
US government entered into negoti- $131.31 billion by 2032, a more than tres. India is expected to witness the The full version article first appeared
ations with Amentum to develop an 17-fold increase…”, reflecting rapid “…peak in its population in the early in the Comments section of the website
AI data centre with a dedicated on- digital transformation and infrastruc- 2060s at about 1.7 billion…”. The (www.idsa.in) of Manohar Parrikar
site energy generation source at the ture build-out. Government of India has recent- Institute for Defense Studies and Anal-
Savannah River Site in South Car- Clearly, technology will contin- ly approved a new set of Nationally yses, New Delhi, on July 29, 2026

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