Aiming to profit from India's lucrative nuclear energy market soon, American company Westinghouse has lauded the efforts of India and the United States to try entering into a commercial agreement by September for establishing a nuclear power plant in India.
"Secretary Kerry's efforts to move discussions forward with an announced goal of reaching commercial agreement in the September timeframe to support licensing and site development of AP1000(R) reactors in India are proving to be invaluable," Westinghouse president and CEO Danny L Roderick said yesterday.
"We welcome particularly the attention of Westinghouse and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India to arrive at a commercial agreement, and we agreed that that commercial agreement should be arrived at by September of this year," Kerry said in New Delhi early this week.
A joint statement issued after the India-US Strategic Dialogue between the US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Indian counterpart Salman Khurshid in New Delhi recently, encouraged the ongoing commercial discussions between NPCIL and Westinghouse towards setting up a nuclear power plant at Mithivirdi in Gujarat.
Westinghouse and Nuclear Power Company of India Limited had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) last year to negotiate an Early Works Agreement (EWA) supporting future construction of AP1000 nuclear power plants at the Mithivirdi site in Gujarat.
The Early Works Agreement includes preliminary licensing and site development work. The expectation is that this agreement will be finalised by this September, the company said in a statement.
"They encouraged the two companies to expedite these consultations. They also took note of the ongoing consultations between General Electric-Hitachi and NPCIL on setting up a nuclear power plant in Andhra Pradesh. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to the full and timely implementation of the US-India civil nuclear cooperation agreement," the joint statement said.
"Westinghouse and our partners within India are committed to providing the large amounts of safe, clean and reliable baseload electricity that India will need as its economy expands. Our agreement with Nuclear Power Company of India is one of many we will undertake as we move forward toward contract finalisation and actual construction," said Gary Urquhart, vice president and managing director of Westinghouse in India.
