NPCIL signs MoU with Areva for supply of two nuclear reactors

New Delhi, Feb 4 (PTI) India Wednesday signed its first commercial pact to build atomic power plants with French company Areva after a 34-year-old international embargo on nuclear trade was lifted.

Areva will supply two European Pressurised Reactors of
1650 MW each for nuclear plants the French company will build
at Jaitapur in India's western state of Maharashtra.

The Memorandum of Understanding for building nuclear
plants was signed by S K Jain, Chairman and Managing Director
Nuclear Power Corporation of India and Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of
Areva.

"This is just the beginning," said Anil Kakodkar,
Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission who was present at
the signing ceremony along with Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of
State in the PMO and Anne-Marie Idrac, French Minister for
Foreign Trade.

Lauvergeon said the Areva was committed to supply fuel
for the lifetime of the reactors, which she pegged at about 60
years.

She said Areva will meet the fuel requirements through
its uranium mines located in various countries, including
Australia, Kazakhstan and Niger.

Though the MoU provides for supply of two nuclear
reactors, the order may be stepped up to six at a later date.

All the reactors will be located in a nuclear park Areva
has been tasked to develop at Jaitapur.

The cost of one EPR has been estimated at between 5.2 and
7.8 billion US dollars, although final costs are subject to
negotiation.

The signing of the MoU signals end of India's nuclear
isolation and its emergence as a responsible nuclear state,
Chavan said.

He said the MoU will pave way for technology
collaboration in the nuclear sector and India seeks to enhance
significantly its electricity generation capacity.

"We need to quadruple power generation as the nation
would require about 63 Giga Watt electricity by 2032," Chavan
said.

NPCIL, which currently operates 17 nuclear power reactors
with a 4120 MW capacity, hopes to step up atomic power
generation to 20,000 MW by 2020.

Currently, EPR-type of reactors are under construction in
Finland, China and France.

In December, India signed a contract with AREVA for
importing 300 tonnes of natural uranium.

This is the first commercial agreement for supply of
nuclear reactors after India got the historic waiver from the
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to participate in global nuclear
commerce in September last year.

Since then, India has signed inter-governmental civil
nuclear cooperation agreements with France, Russia, the US and
Kazakhstan.

Once the India-specific safeguards agreement with the
IAEA, signed in Vienna yesterday, is ratified, nuclear fuel
supplied by Areva will be used in Rajasthan Atomic Power
Station units, two of which are already under safeguards for
the last three decades.

The nuclear trade embargo was enforced on India after
it conducted nuclear tests in 1974. PTI SK