Will Andhra and Gujarat house US nuclear reactors?

Thursday, July 16, 2009

at 8:30 AM

The United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's five-day tour of India beginning Friday is likely to set the stage for developing two US nuclear sites in India as a follow up to the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Former US President George W. Bush in December last year had signed into law a nuclear deal with India in a major step towards allowing New Delhi to buy US reactors and fuel for the first time in 30 years.

According to a media report, India has more or less identified the sites in two states: Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

The identification of the sites flows from a commitment India had given, through a letter of intent under the nuclear deal, which commits India to purchase 10,000 MW from US nuclear companies and mark “at least two sites” for this purpose. Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh were the two states that offered sites for this and have now been approved, the 'Indian Express' reported on Wednesday.

India has a yawning energy deficit, and the accord opens up a market worth billions to US companies such as General Electric and Westinghouse Electric, a unit of Japan's Toshiba Corp.
"It opens up as much as $10 billion worth of new exports to India," a top US official said about the US prospects.

Apart from naming nuclear sites, Hillary is expected to sign another agreement on end-use monitoring of sensitive US technology and equipment.

Assistant Secretary for South Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake said in Washington on Wednesday that US hopes to be able to sign an end-use monitoring agreement and added that US hoped that India will be in a position to announce two sites where US companies will have the exclusive right to set up nuclear reactors.

Allaying fears in India over the recent G-8 declaration regarding restriction on transfer of atomic technology to non-NPT States, Blake said it was "fully committed" to the nuclear deal with New Delhi and hopes to sign the end-use monitoring agreement on Monday. "We hope to be able to sign that (end-use monitoring agreement), and obviously, that will take place on Monday of next week," Blake told reporters in Washington