On 27 March 2015, the Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) submitted a draft report to India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) reviewing the country's legal and regulatory regime for safety of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) and safety practices Oand policies at plants across the country. The IRRS draft mission report, the final version of which is expected by the government in three months, found India to be strongly committed to nuclear-energy safety.

This paper examines some of the recommendations made by the IRRS and offer an analysis of the context in which India's nuclear regulatory structure has developed since the inception of its civil nuclear programme. It also deals with the issue of waste management in India and concludes with
some policy recommendations for India's civil nuclear safety and waste strategy.

India has the potential to not only substantially increase its civil nuclear capacity, thereby making important strides to address its energy shortfall, but it also has an opportunity to
develop itself into a world leader in nuclear technology over the coming decades. This could create a pathway for India to become an exporter of nuclear technology at some point in the future, a position that would have many positive geopolitical ramifications for the country. For this to happen,
the country's nuclear establishment must pivot away from a strategy of nuanced, inward-looking safety culture to a more global and principled approach