The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and JSC TVEL Corporation, a subsidiary of Russia’s Atomenergoprom (Nuclear Energy Power Corporation), today signed contracts for the supply of 2,000 tonnes of uranium pellets to India’s nuclear reactors.
The total value of the contracts is $700 million. The two have also signed another contract for 60 tonnes of low enriched uranium (LEU) pellets for the reactors at Tarapur.
After India obtained waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group to go ahead with global nuclear trade in September 2008, it signed its first nuclear fuel supply deal with Russia. “Today’s development is the culmination of more than three months of technical studies,” said JSC TVEL vice-president Vasily Konstantinov.
This fuel would also be used for the reactors being set up at Kudankulam with Russia’s help.
Following the NSG waiver, Russia would provide fuel and help in the construction of an additional four reactors at Kudankulam, said physicist Professor R Rajaraman, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
After the contracts were signed today in Mumbai, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) Chairman and Managing Director S K Jain said: “The contract is a landmark in NPCIL’s ties with Russian companies in furthering the role of nuclear power as a clean (power) generating technology.”
India recently signed the India-specific safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and inked a pact with French company Areva to supply 300 tonnes of uranium to set up two nuclear plants.
