International BusinessUS commercial N-mission to India to meet stake holders in Dec
With the Indo-US civil nuclear deal on track, representatives of top US atomic companies would tour India in December to meet all stake holders in the country"s emerging commercial nuclear sector, the second such visit in less than a year.
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The US India Business Council (USIBC) and Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) announced the India visit of the nuclear mission, which has the support of the Obama Administration.
Comprising top US nuclear companies, the fifth US Commercial Nuclear Mission to India would be in New Delhi from December 7 to 9 and in Mumbai from December 10 to 11.
"We will meet all the stake holders in the emerging commercial nuclear sector in India," said Ted Jones, Director, Energy Environment and Enterprise, USIBC.
He said prominent among those would be senior Government officials who are making policy, such as the office of Prime Minister and the Department of Atomic Energy, as also those from Nuclear Power Corporation, National Thermal Power Corporation, or those who manufacture equipment like BHEL or the companies in the private sector like Larsen and Turbo.
"We will meet them via a CII-USIBC Joint Task Force, which has met regularly since December 2006," he said.
The CII-USIBC Joint Task Force identifies policy issues on both sides requiring attention in order for India to move toward its ambitious goals for expanding its nuclear generating capacity to 30,000 MW by 2020 and 60,000 MW by 2030.
The mission would be co-led by executives from General Electricals and Westinghouse.
The announcement of the mission comes within a month of India designating two reactor parks dedicated to at least 10,000 megawatts of US commercial nuclear technology.
Ultimately, six to eight reactors will be installed at each reactor park. Nationwide, India aims to raise its total installed nuclear generating capacity from the present 4,120 megawatts to 60,000 megawatts by 2030.
"This is the beginning of a strong and long lasting cooperation in clean energy," Jones said.
USIBC President, Ron Somers, said the two key issues that have interfered with US-India commercial nuclear trade appears closer to favourable resolution. These are conclusion of a US -India reprocessing agreement and India"s adoption of a nuclear liability law consistent with CSC (Convention on Supplementary Compensation for nuclear damage).
This would be the second nuclear mission to India in a year. Earlier in January USIBC and NEI took the largest ever nuclear mission to India.