Progress on atomic plants being built here by France and the US can be hampered by the delay in India's nuclear deal with Japan where key components of these plants are manufactured and India now wants these countries to push Japan to conclude the agreement at the earliest.
National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon impressed upon French officials during his visit to Paris last month that France should take up the issue with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when he travels there in May, sources said here.
Menon told the French officials that Abe should be persuaded to fast-track the nuclear deal with India, the sources said.
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France is building a nuclear plant at Jaitapur in Maharashtra and a number of its components are manufactured by companies based in Japan. Until India and Japan have a nuclear deal in place, these companies cannot provide the components for the plant.
Similarly, the US is also proposing to construct a nuclear plant in Mithi Virdi in Gujarat and will require components from Japan-based companies.
For US and France, their companies - WestingHouse Electric Co, GE Electric and Areva - are building reactor for Indian nuclear power plants. The technology used by these companies requires equipment that could be sourced from Japan.
For India, nuclear cooperation deal with France will open a range of avenues in the field of nuclear energy and cooperation.
As the nuclear deal with Japan and India could not be signed during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent visit to Delhi last month, sources point out that this could have an impact on the progress of two upcoming nuclear power plant projects in India.
