The signing of the civilian nuclear deal between India and Russia is set to take the civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries to new heights. According to Indian officials, with the pact in place, India is “virtually assured of a disruption-proof supply of nuclear fuel and nuclear technology for the future.”

The agreement – signed by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev – also gives Russia contracts to build 12-14 nuclear reactors in India.

Thus, India has become the key partner of Russia in the area civil nuclear power.

Sergei Kirienko, chief of Rosatom, Russia’ State Atomic Energy Corporation, said India is the “key destination” for Russia’s foreign contracts. Indian and Russia, Kirienko added, are finalising a commercial contract to construct 12-14 Russian-designed nuclear reactors at 2 sites in India.

Of these, 4 reactors will be built at the Koodankulam power plant in Tamil Nadu, where Russia has almost completed building two 1,000-megawatt units. Another 4 to 6 reactors will be constructed at the Haripur site in West Bengal.

Sergei Kirienko said the Russian nuclear reactors would be constructed using an advanced “flow-line technology” which will cut costs by 25%-30% and also reduce the construction time of each unit by 2 years.

Under the flow-line technology, work on 4 nuclear reactors will start simultaneously, instead of each unit being constructed separately. This, according to Sergei Kirienko, will bring down the construction time of each unit from 6 years to 4 years, as well as make possible commissioning of one unit every year. India’s nuclear deal with Canada is not signed yet.

Meanwhile, reports say that the civilian nuclear pact between Indian and Russia has made companies in the United States uneasy as procedural issues are still making their entry into India impossible.

A “nuclear mission” consisting of around 50 United States-based companies is reportedly meeting officials in the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi as well as the Ministries and Ministers concerned in an attempt to find out the “policy challenges” that keep the US firms away from India.

In related news, the French Parliament recently approved the India-France civil nuclear agreement unanimously.

The ratification of the Indo-French nuclear deal by the French National Assembly paves the way for France-based companies to construct nuclear power plants in India.

The bilateral agreement on the use of nuclear energy for civilian purposes – called the ‘Cooperation Agreement between India and France on the Development of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy’ – was earlier adopted by the French Senate on October 15, 2009.

France was the first nation to have signed an agreement on a civil nuclear cooperation with India, just over 3 weeks after the 3-decade-old international nuclear trade embargo on India was lifted in 2008.

The 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) Group issued the India-specific waiver of the nuclear-transfer guidelines on September 6, 2008, and India signed the pact with France on September 30, 2008.

A statement issued by the French Embassy in New Delhi said that France-based Areva, the multinational industrial conglomerate that is mainly involved in the field of nuclear power; has been allocated the nuclear project site at Jaitapur, in Maharashtra, to construct 2 nuclear power plants initially.

Each of the 2 power plants to be built in Jaitapur will have a capacity of 1,600 megawatts.

According to the statement from the French Embassy, the actual contract for the first 2 nuclear power plants will be signed early in 2010.

The India-France civil nuclear pact provides for reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors in France under safeguards. The deal also promises a lifetime supply of spent nuclear fuel for these reactors.

The agreement, however, does not prevent the transfer of technologies regarding nuclear enrichment and reprocessing.

The bilateral agreement makes it mandatory that reprocessing of the spent nuclear fuel be done under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

With the ratification of the Indo-French civil agreement by the French Parliament, France becomes the second nation, after Russia, to have given India “unconditional rights” to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.

Mongolia, which is supposed to have plentiful reserves of uranium, is the 6th country with which India has entered into a civilian nuclear agreement after the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) revoked the 34-year-old ban on India. The NSG ban had prevented India from trading in the areas of radioactive substances and nuclear energy with other countries.

Mongolia is believed to have about 6% of the total uranium reserves in the world.

India already has civilian nuclear agreements in place with the United States, France, Russia, Namibia and Kazakhstan.

The new agreement – called the ‘Memorandum of Understanding on Development of Cooperation in the field of Peaceful Use of Radioactive Minerals and Nuclear Energy’ – will enable India to seek uranium from Mongolia.

The accord on nuclear power plus four other agreements were signed after detailed discussions held between India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mongolia’s President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj in New Delhi.

After signing the pacts, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters that both India and Mongolia have also agreed to cooperate strongly the fields of mining, agriculture, health, statistical affairs, and cultural exchange.

Besides, the two nations also agreed upon bilateral investment protection and on ways to avoid double taxation, and on boosting cooperation, including the issue of terrorism and UN reforms.

India promised Mongolia a stabilisation fund worth US $25 million in order to ease the ill-effects of the worldwide economic recession on Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia and the country’s biggest city.

Mongolia’s President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj said his country is “grateful to India for having provided stabilisation funds for the resurgence of its staggering economy.”

The visit to New Delhi is Elbegdorj’s first official visit overseas after he became President of Mongolia in June 2009.

President Elbegdorj is accompanied by a high-level delegation consisting of officials and businessmen, including the Minister for Education, Science and Culture; the Minister for Foreign Affairs; the Minister for Trade; and senior parliamentarians.
The Foreign Investment and Foreign Trade Agency of Mongolia (FIFTA) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at strengthening cooperation between India and Mongolia in the fields of trade and investment.

Mr.Pranabh Mukherjee led a team of delegations in the absence of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh who is undergoing a bypass operation. Indian president Pratibha Patil was also present during the signing of the MoU.

As per the MoU, the uranium-rich country Kazakhstan agreed to export uranium to India to enhance India’s civil nuclear agenda. According to reports, the MoU, between Nuclear Power Corporation of India and Kazakhstan’s state owned KazAtomProm, will also allow Kazakhstan to help build atomic power plants in India.

The terms and conditions of the nuclear deal will be discussed and decided later.

This will be India’s fourth major nuclear deal after having a successful extradition with France, US, and Russia.

Kazakhstan is the world’s third largest uranium producer after Australia and Canada and is likely to overcome them by 2010.

“On September 4, on the first day of the NSG meeting, Kazakhstan’s permanent representative made a speech strongly supporting India’s case. This was despite the fact that Kazakhstan suffered 500 nuclear tests conducted on its territory by the USSR in the 20th century,” Umarov was quoted as saying.

Apart from the nuclear deal, both the countries also signed four other treaties that included Kazakhstan’s access to the World Trade Organization (WTO); A MoU between the Indian space research centre and National Space Agency and between ONGC Mittal Energy Ltd and National Company KazMunai.

“It is a big step forward towards achieving our targets for generating nearly 30,000 MWe of nuclear power by 2020. This is a historic agreement between the two nations and would strengthen ties and bilateral cooperation,” Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh, who signed the agreement on the WTO accession, said.

Kazakhstan also showed keen interest in purchasing atomic reactors from India in the near future. Kazakhstan also invited India in mining uranium in their country and offer to provide the necessary expertise as well.

Kazakhstan has finished talks with 22 other countries for their accession in the WTO and India responding positively said that they would provide the Kazakhstani officials with elementary training to deal with WTO matters.

In one more agreement between the two nations, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Videsh Limited (OVL) and its partner company Mittal Energy Limited will now have 25% stake in Kazakhstan’s prospective Satpayev oil field in the Caspian Sea.