NUCLEAR ENERGY: DRAFT AMENDMENT BILL OUT FOR COMMENT

NUCLEAR ENERGY: DRAFT AMENDMENT BILL OUT FOR COMMENT

• 22 May 2026
• Minerals & Energy
• SA Legal Academy

The Department of Electricity & Energy has gazetted a notice calling for input by 21 June 2026 on a draft Nuclear Energy Amendment Bill. No explanatory notes have been provided – and at the time of writing the department had yet to issue a media statement on the proposed new piece of legislation.

However, according to the draft Bill’s long title, it seeks to:

• ‘enhance (the) regulatory framework for nuclear materials and goods
• ‘ensure compliance with international nuclear non-proliferation agreements’
• ‘establish and maintain a national register of authorised persons’, and
• provide for:
  • restricted acts and activities
  • authorisation applications
  • ‘the Minister's powers over authorisation’, and
  • the establishment of a ministerial advisory committee on ‘nuclear related matters’.

According to the national government website, the 1999 principal statute has been amended twice: by the 2024 National Nuclear Energy Regulator Amendment Act (in force since December 2025), the 2004 Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist & Related Activities Act, and by the 2022 amendments to that Act. However, as far as can be ascertained no updated version of the statute reflecting these changes is available.

• draft Bill
• national government website page on the principal statute

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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