CII welcomed the recently signed India Specific IAEA Safeguards Agreement and said that the agreement will provide essential momentum to India’s global engagement in nuclear commerce for the civilian use.
As per the conditions specified in the Agreement, India could import reactor technology including fuel and services from USA and other countries. Nuclear reactors operating in India will be also put under IAEA Safeguards in a phased manner as committed by the Indian Government.
CII felt that policy issues in both India and US need attention in order to move toward on India’s goals for expanding nuclear generating capacity to 30,000 MW by 2020 and 60,000 MW by 2030. To enable Indian and U.S. private sector companies to take part in the expansion, issues relating to nuclear liability and intellectual property protection, among others, would need to be addressed.
CII strongly believes that there are enormous business opportunities in the Nuclear Power sector which would benefit the Utilities, Engineering, Manufacturing and the Services Industry in India. There are lot of capabilities already existing in the Indian industry in design & engineering; manufacturing of several critical parts of a reactor, safety up-gradation related services and also in the fuel fabrication industry and these companies can look at different types of business ventures with the US companies.