Atomic Energy Commission

Background and evolution

India's interest in nuclear science began before independence. Homi J. Bhabha founded the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 1945 and persuaded Jawaharlal Nehru that atomic energy could power India's development. The Atomic Energy Act was passed in 1948, and the Atomic Energy Commission was set up the same year under the Department of Scientific Research, with Bhabha as chairman.

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was created in 1954 under the direct charge of the Prime Minister, and in 1958 the government reconstituted the AEC by a resolution, giving it full executive and financial powers within the DAE. This structure, later used as a model for the Space Commission (1972), allows quick decisions in a field with high technical complexity and strategic sensitivity.

Key features and provisions

• Composition: a chairman, who is ex officio Secretary of the DAE, and full-time and part-time members, including senior scientists and officials such as the Cabinet Secretary and Finance Secretary.
• Role: frames nuclear policy, approves the DAE's budget, and oversees research, power generation and fuel cycle activities.
• Institutions under the DAE: the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), BHAVINI, the Uranium Corporation of India, IREL and research institutes.
• Regulation: the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), set up in 1983 by the AEC, regulates safety, but critics note that it reports to the AEC and is not statutory.
• Three-stage programme: pressurised heavy water reactors using natural uranium; fast breeder reactors using plutonium; and reactors using thorium, India's abundant resource.