By RIA Novosti
Moscow : A Russian nuclear official said his country could launch cooperation with India in building fast neutron nuclear reactors for power plants if sanctions against India are removed.
India has never been party to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has been under US, Japanese and European sanctions since 1998, when it detonated atomic devices.
“Joint work to build nuclear power plants equipped with fast neutron reactors is one of our perspective projects. India is taking its first steps in this work, and Russia is the world leader in this field,” the spokesperson for the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power said Wednesday.
The Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in Russia’s Urals has operated with a fast neutron reactor for more than 20 years.
“Russia and India have wide prospects for atomic cooperation. India has long since started producing heavy-water reactors for nuclear power plants, and can build 600 MW power units of this kind. But the country is not yet building PWRs (pressurised water reactors), which are similar to Russian VVER reactors, so we have good opportunities for cooperation in this field,” the official said.
He said uranium enrichment was underdeveloped in India and Russia could offer such services for the Indian nuclear power sector.
However, the spokesperson said cooperation is currently possible only on the Kudankulam nuclear power plant that Russia is helping India to build as restrictions on nuclear supplies remain in place.
Atomstroyexport, Russia’s nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, has been building the Kudankulam plant in the southern province of Tamil Nadu since 2002 in line with a 1988 agreement between India and the erstwhile Soviet Union and another signed ten years later. The plant is designed to have a capacity of 2,000 MW.
In January, Russian Nuclear Power Agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko called for lifting the restrictions. “Russia believes that India has an unimpeachable reputation in the nuclear non-proliferation sphere, and therefore we are going to push for an end to corresponding sanctions against India,” he said at the time.