Historical, regulatory and safety aspects of nuclear energy in India

Jawaharlal Nehru, former Prime Minister of India and Homi J. Bhabha interacted closely to set up the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948. The Indian parliament replaced the Atomic Energy Act, 1948 with the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 (AEA 1962) and promulgated appropriate rules. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was set up in 1954. The Indian Cabinet established, through a resolution, a new Atomic Energy Commission, with administrative and financial powers of the Government of India to carry out DAE's work. DAE set up the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and delegated to it the responsibility to enforce certain safety and regulatory functions under the AEA 1962. Besides AERB's review mechanisms and some enforcement actions, the paper describes two court cases; one related to the import of Irish butter oil allegedly contaminated with Chernobyl fallout and the other on the diseases in the villages near the Jaduguda uranium mine.