Firms selling n-fuel will guarantee uninterrupted supplies: NPCIL chief

Mumbai, September 17: Even as wires remain crossed between New Delhi and Washington over whether India can be assured of uninterrupted nuclear fuel supplies, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) has said that its contracts with foreign suppliers would make such an assurance legally binding.

“It will be essential for us to have legal contracts where provisions are there of uninterrupted fuel supply for the entire lifetime of the plant,” NPCIL CMD S K Jain told The Indian Express. The foreign supplier will have to commit that the mechanism would work “unhindered, uninterrupted and insulated from any future legislation,” he added.

NPCIL works under the Department of Atomic Energy, spearheading India’s nuclear power programme. The issue ran into controversy after a letter written by President George W. Bush to the U S Congress raised doubts over uninterrupted supplies.

Jain said the first consignment of imported uranium would reach India within two months of the U S Congress approving the 123 Agreement, and the signing of similar agreements with supplier countries like France and Russia. It will, however, be at least a year and a half before the first imported reactor arrives.

NPCIL had begun identifying suppliers soon after India and the U S agreed to the nuclear deal in principle in July 2005, and shortlisted GE and Westinghouse of the U S, Areva of France and Atomstroy Export of Russia. “It should be possible to get uranium within a month to two months of the green signal being given,” Jain said.

However, only one reactor, RAPS-2 in Rajasthan, is eligible to use imported uranium immediately. This is because the separation of India’s civilian and military nuclear plants will be done in phases. RAPS-5 and 6 are next in line to be notified as purely civilian.

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