By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : The global financial meltdown will not affect the India-US civil nuclear cooperation as the demand for energy is still increasing, a top US official said Friday.
“Despite the financial meltdown, the demand for electricity in India is expected to grow…And each country has to decide how to meet that demand and how much of it should come from nuclear energy,” Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Dale E Klein told reporters here at an industry session organised by CII.
He noted that for a lower electricity demand the slowdown in the economy has to be to a great extent.
“There are really no estimates on this,” he said, pointing out that the financial slowdown had begun only a couple of months back.
In reply to a question, Klein indicated that the China, which sources a part of its nuclear needs from American companies, could in the future sell the nuclear technology to Pakistan.
France through Areva and US company Westinghouse are supplying a certain number of nuclear reactors to China which will definitely granted access to IPRs some technology, he said, noting Beijing would also like to market those technologies.
“My guess is that several years from now, I do not know how many years, China would be marketing these reactors worldwide as well as the technologies it got from these companies.
“In a free market enterprise that is how the system works. Even when Areva and Westinghouse signed the contracts, they may have been aware of transfer of some intellectual property rights,” Klein said.