Control Over Mining, Production and Radiation

In one line

Powers to enter, to dig, to take the right to mine, to take the mineral, to take the plant, and to take over the contract, and in each case the uranium is worth nothing to the person it is taken from.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 14(1) empowers the Central Government by order to prohibit, except under a licence granted by it, the working of any mine or minerals from which a prescribed substance can be obtained, and the acquisition, production, possession, use, disposal, export or import of any prescribed substance, of specified minerals from which one can be obtained, of any plant designed, adapted or manufactured for the production, development and use of atomic energy, and of any prescribed equipment; and section 14(1A) provides that no licence for such a plant shall be granted to a person other than a Department of the Central Government, an authority, institution or corporation established by it, or a Government company.

A currency note, as of September 2026. The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025 (Act No. 39 of 2025, the SHANTI Act) was enacted in December 2025 but is not yet in force as of September 2026; on commencement its section 91 repeals the Act of 1962, so the sections in this chapter govern until then. The new Act rebuilds these controls. The rule of section 14(1A) gives way to section 3: a licence for a nuclear plant or reactor, for fuel fabrication, for the transport or storage of nuclear fuel or spent fuel, and for dealings in prescribed substances and equipment may be granted to a Government body, a Government company, any other company, a joint venture among them or a person the Central Government permits by notification, while section 3(5) reserves enrichment, spent fuel management and heavy water production to the Central Government. An activity likely to expose a person to radiation also needs a safety authorisation from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (section 3(3)), which section 17 deems constituted under the new Act. The powers of acquisition, requisition and novation reappear in sections 33 to 35, and compensation under section 36 still leaves out the value of the uranium, thorium or plutonium.

The graduated powers over the resource

Section 8, entry and inspection. A person authorised by the Central Government may, on producing his authority if required, enter any mine, premises or land where he has reason to believe work is being carried on for or in connection with the production or processing of a prescribed substance or a substance from which one can be obtained, or the production, development or use of atomic energy, or where a plant of the kind mentioned in section 7(b) is situated, and may inspect it and the articles in it.