Article Posted on : - Jul 17, 2009

A file picture of one of the reactors at the Kudankulan nuclear power plant.

NEW DELHI (BNS): With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh scheduled to visit Russia in December this year, deliberations are on between the two countries to set up four nuclear reactors in India.

The two sides are expected to sign contracts in this regard during the Prime Minister’s Moscow visit, according to a news report in the Deccan Chronicle.

The Russian side is believed to have expressed interest in setting up the nuclear reactors in a location, near the Kudalkulan site in Tamil Nadu, either on the east coast or on the west coast, and also in Karnataka, the report said.

The Indian nuclear agency, however, is yet to short-list Karnataka as the site for the reactors. “Only Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal on the east coast and Gujarat and Maharashtra on the west coast had been earmarked for locating nuclear parks. The French reactors would be set up at Jaitapur in Maharashtra while the reactors to be built with assistance from the United States were likely to be located in two states,” the report said.

India and Russia had clinched the deal to build additional nuclear power plant units at Kudankulan and other sites during the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit here last year.

Meanwhile, Russia has reassured India that the G-8 statement on non-proliferation, which talked about curbing transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies to non-NPT signatories including India, will not limit the scope of Indo-Russian civil nuclear cooperation agreement.

Russia has taken the position that the G-8 statement was not legally-binding and it would not affect its contractual obligations.