India to sign contract with Russian co for uranium

Mumbai, Feb 9 (PTI) Close on the heels of entering into a
nuclear deal with French power major Areva, India is set to
sign a contract with a leading Russian company for 2000 metric
tonnes of uranium pellets on Wednesday here.

The Department of Atomic Energy, which is in urgent need
for fuel for its indigenous civil nuclear reactors, will enter
into contract with TVEL for buying uranium pellets for USD 780
million, DAE sources said today.

This will be the second such contract signed by the
Department after the Nuclear Supplier's Group gave green
signal in September last year.

This contract will be for a long-term delivery, may be
over a period of 10 years, the sources said.

Russia had earlier supplied fuel for the US-built
Tarapur Atomic Power Stations which will exhaust soon.

In December 2008, DAE signed a contract with AREVA for
300 metric tonnes of uranium.

In the case of AREVA, the imported fuel will be in the
form of uranium oxide powder, slightly better than yellow
cake.

The uranium oxide powder requires a little more treatment
before pellet formation and fabrication at Hyderabad-based
Nuclear Fuel complex (NFC), sources said.

For the processing of imported fuel, part of NFC has to
be placed under IAEA safeguards.

Before giving notification on NFC to IAEA, India has to
ratify the India-specific safeguards agreement which was
signed in Vienna on February 2 by Indian ambassador Saurabh
Kumar and IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei and
communicate the same to IAEA, DAE sources said.

After ratification, the government has to notify the
reactors and facilities that will be placed under
international safeguards.

All these processes have to be done before the
announcement of the next general elections, the sources said.

"This is an agreement with a long-term commitment and the
government is aware of the time constraint. The DAE hopes
things will fall in place as per schedule," the sources said.

TVEL is one of the world's leading producers of nuclear
fuel. It supplies atomic fuel to 73 commercial and 30 research
reactors in 13 countries.

Russia is building two 1000 VVER light water reactors for
the Kudankulam NPP in Tamil Nadu and one of them will be
commissioned this year.

During Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Delhi
in December last year, the two countries agreed to build four
more units. PTI LV
SAK