By Lyubov Pronina and Yuriy Humber
Russia and India agreed to increase nuclear energy cooperation, boosting Rosatom Corp.’s prospects as it vies with international rivals to expand the South Asian nation’s atomic capacity a planned 10-fold by 2020. The deal, signed yesterday in Moscow, will allow Russia’s state nuclear company, to negotiate on a price for additional reactors at the Kudankulam site in southern Tamil Nadu state, where the first two units are under construction. Rosatom can also study new sites for nuclear plants.
Rosatom is competing with Areva SA, the world’s biggest maker of reactors, Westinghouse Electric Co. and Alstom SA to build nuclear plants after the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group last year lifted a three-decade global ban on trading in atomic equipment and fuel with India. Asia’s third-largest energy user plans to increase nuclear generation to 40,000 megawatts in the next decade from around 4,000 megawatts currently.
“Russia has been very active in the past in India so that certainly gives them a strong advantage,” said Rob Gout, chief operating officer at PM Dimensions, a Mumbai-based provider of nuclear engineering and training services. “There’s space for everyone to play; Areva, Westinghouse, Russians. There’s so much work that we don’t think any one company could handle all of it.”
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Rosatom, and Srikumar Banerjee, Chairman of India’s Atomic Energy Commission, signed an agreement in Moscow in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“Good Experience”
“The agreement opens opportunities for cooperation in the future,” Medvedev said yesterday at a televised press conference from the Kremlin. The two countries have “good experience” in jointly building the first two reactors at the Kudankulam power plant and may extend the partnership to other sites, he said.
Russia is seeking to book more sites for its nuclear reactors in India since any one plant tends to operate units from only one vendor. Rosatom can build more reactors at the Kudankulam site and start developing the Haripur site in West Bengal state, Singh said. The cooperation agreement will expand beyond reactor building to research and development, he said.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=ap4sovUSmFOc
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