India Wants to Start Working on Nuclear Energy Projects in 2009

By Archana Chaudhary and Viola Gienger

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- India aims to start final negotiations next week with General Electric Co., Areva SA and Westinghouse Electric Co. on building reactors as early as next year, after U.S. approval of a nuclear accord with the South Asian nation.

``The dream is to start work next year,'' said S.K. Jain, chairman of state-owned Nuclear Power Corp. of India, the nation's monopoly atomic energy utility, in a telephone interview today. ``But there's a full set of procedures to be followed after the companies agree.''

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will mark the final approval of the nuclear-energy agreement with India on her second trip in office to the subcontinent starting today. India had been waiting for U.S. approval before starting talks with companies.

The nuclear agreement, passed by the Senate Oct. 1 by a vote of 86-13, allows U.S. nuclear suppliers to trade with India for the first time since it tested an atomic bomb in 1974. The Bush administration made the accord a top foreign-policy priority as a way to lock in potential political and economic links far beyond the nuclear-energy industry.

``We will begin focused negotiations with the four short- listed companies, GE, Areva, Westinghouse and Rosatom Corp., starting next week,'' Jain said. Getting the projects started, ``can take anywhere between three to eight months. The hesitation is over.''

Nuclear Power will also seek to buy nuclear fuel to power the reactors that it's planning to set up.

``We are also looking to buy more nuclear fuel or yellow cake by year-end and plan to start work at two sites, in Jaitapur in Maharashtra and Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu,'' Jain said.

Rice Visit

Rice will meet officials including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Foreign Minister L.K. Advani and opposition leader L.K. Advani in New Delhi, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington yesterday. The secretary of state will also visit Kazakhstan during her Oct. 3-5 trip, he said.

``The agreement bolsters our partnership with the world's largest democracy and a growing economic power, and will provide economic and job opportunities for our economy,'' Rice has said. ``The initiative will help India's population of more than 1 billion to meet its rapidly increasing energy needs in an environmentally responsible way.''

Rice will discuss a ``wide range of issues'' with Indian officials other than the agreement, including trade, counterterrorism, human rights, religious freedom and education, McCormack said.

``India is going to play a very important role, along with a number of other countries in that region, in the South Asia region, whether it's politics or economics or energy,'' he said.

Kazakhstan Visit

In Kazakhstan, Rice will meet with officials including President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Prime Minister Karim Massimov and Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin.

The talks will touch on security and energy issues, political and economic reforms and Kazakhstan's ``role as a regional leader,'' McCormack said.

Kazakhstan, the second-largest oil producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia, will hold the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2010. The inter-governmental group focuses on security and human rights.

Rice will press Kazakhstan, which has been the target of criticism by human rights groups, for further reforms in areas such as free speech and political rights, McCormack said.

``They have taken some steps,'' he said. ``There are many more that they need to take.''

Nazarbayev has instituted a plan for changes in a wide range of areas called the ``Road to Europe,'' Tazhin said Oct. 1 in a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

The country is seeking to continue its economic growth of 9 percent to 10 percent annually, and to provide assurances to business partners, especially since most of the oil Kazakhstan extracts will be exported, he said.

``Kazakhstan understands its role and importance as a supplier of hydrocarbons to the world market, and we'll be a responsible and reliable international partner,'' Tazhin said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Archana Chaudhary in Mumbai at achaudhary2@bloomberg.net; Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net.