China starts constructing third-generation nuclear reactors

September 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's top construction and engineering firm Larsen and Toubro (L and T) has said it planned to invest 500 million dollars to build nuclear reactors, hoping to tap Indian orders for power projects. Talking to reporters here on Tuesday L and T chairman and manging director A.M.

September 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei on Tuesday praised India for promoting peaceful tilisation of Atomic energy. Addressing International conference on 'Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy' in New Delhi, he said India had successfully harnessed nuclear technology in fields of radiation, nuclear medicine and agriculture and was a role model for developing countries.

September 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - With private companies barred from the country's atomic energy generation industry, the state-run Nuclear Power Corp is signing pacts with two other government firms to fund its new projects, a top company official said Friday. We are going in for public partnership.

August 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's per capita electricity consumption has to go up eight times for Indians to have the same quality of life as Americans and Japanese, and for this the country would have to push nuclear energy in a big way, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister R. Chidambaram said here Thursday.

July 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Minister of State in PMO Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday said that many countries want to sell nuclear reactors to India, but any deal in this regard would be struck only on terms set down by the government. "We are planning to import nuclear reactors.

July 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government has accorded approval for setting up nuclear power plants in Gujarat and Rajasthan with a combined generating capacity of 2,800 MW, parliament was informed Thursday. The plants will be located at Kakrapar in Gujarat and Rawatbhata in Rajasthan and will each have two units of 700 MW each, Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

July 14th, 2009 PARIS - The decision of the G8 countries to put a ban on helping non-NPT countries to reprocess uranium would have no effect on India, officials accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his four-day trip to France and Egypt said. "We are receiving no help from anybody," official sources said.

May 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Chinese Government is considering an adjustment to its nuclear power development plan in order to boost nuclear power development in coastal areas while scientifically planning nuclear power stations inland. China is world's second-largest energy user and golden time for the country's nuclear power development has come," said Zhou Xi'an, Director of the General Affairs Department of the National Energy Administration.

May 5th, 2009 LONDON - Despite the growing international concerns about the safety of the nuclear arsenals in the country amid the expanding writ of the Taliban, Pakistan is expanding its nuclear capability, the Guardian reports. David Albright, former weapons inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has claimed that two plutonium-producing reactors are nearing completion at Khushab, about 160 miles south-west of the capital, Islamabad.

April 15th, 2009 MUMBAI - Indian diversified conglomerate Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has further expanded its footprint in the nuclear power space, signing a pact with a Russian nuclear energy major to design and develop reactors for the Indian market, including four at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu. L&T had earlier signed similar pacts with Westinghouse Electric of the US and Atomic Energy of Canada.

February 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The country's leading power producer NTPC Ltd Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) to jointly produce nuclear power plants. As per the proposal, the power majors will set up a joint venture company in which NPCIL will hold 51 percent stake and NTPC will own the rest, a government statement said.

February 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A month after India entered into a nuclear pact with Russia, leading Russian nuclear company TVEL Wednesday signed a deal to supply uranium to Indian nuclear plants. Russia's state-owned nuclear company Atomenergoprom said that its unit, TVEL, and Indian officials had signed the latest deal under which 'the total cost of contracts is more than $700 million'.

February 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Following the government's green signal to foreign companies to participate in India's nuclear power programme, AREVA of France Wednesday signed a pact with state-run Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) to set up nuclear power reactors in Maharashtra. As per the agreement, the two companies will start technical and commercial discussions for setting up two to six European pressurised reactor (EPR) units of 1,650 MW each at Jaitapur in Maharashtra.

February 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - India and France are set to start a new chapter in civilian nuclear cooperation when French nuclear giant Areva signs a pact with India's nuclear monopoly NPCIL Wednesday for the import of new generation EPR-type nuclear reactors. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Areva will be inked here in the presence of French Minister of State for Foreign Trade Anne-Marie Idrac and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan.

January 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Hailing India as an 'El Dorado' for nuclear business, the government Monday ruled out the participation of the private sector in the country's burgeoning civil nuclear industry for at least five years. Announcing an ambitious plan to expand atomic power generation to 50,000 MW by 2040, the government also underlined that India would not only be an importer of nuclear equipment but could also be an exporter of fast-breeder and thorium-based reactors.