Russia wins India nuclear contracts

[joeblow]

Russia wins India nuclear contracts
Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:27:19 GMT

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=1 ... =351020602



The nuclear reactor site at Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant

Russia's state nuclear company said Tuesday it could build four to six nuclear reactors in eastern India, a day after Moscow led international nuclear cooperation with New Delhi.

The chief of the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, said the construction of the plants in West Bengal could take 10 to 15 years, The Moscow Times reported.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday in Moscow, clinching major civilian nuclear projects.

The move formalized the first instance of such cooperation since the US-led nuclear exports regulator Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) banned transference of nuclear technology to India.

India, a state with nuclear arms, has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"It's important for Russia that it was the first country to sign an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with India after the ban was abolished," Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov was quoted as saying.

Rosatom also secured a deal to build four more reactors for its nuclear power station in Kudankulam, located in the Tamil Nadu state in southern India.

"A third site is possible for Russia, but a decision has not been made so far," he told reporters, Interfax reported.

The NSG formed in 1975, denouncing a nuclear test by India a year before as a symbol of diversion from peaceful purposes and raising serious objections to New Delhi's non-membership of the NPT.

US officials spearheaded the removal of the ban last year in an apparent attempt to secure Washington's share of the India's promising nuclear market.

HN/MD