A point of access to nuclear market, India has planned investments of millions

New Delhi, 21 August 2008. - A point of view open the doors of the international nuclear market, India is planning investments of 300,000 million dollars for a civil nuclear program that seeks to alleviate the energy shortage which hampers their growth.
The country is currently operating 17 reactors with an output of 4,120 megawatts theoretical, 15,180 who will become the new projects it has set the Atomic Commission of India until 2020.
"Nuclear power in the country is 3 percent of total energy production. We hope to reach 10 percent in 2020, "he told Efe Sudhinder Thakur, executive director of nuclear public consortium of India (NPCIL).
Expansion projects and new reactors have a value of 300,000 million dollars and is estimated to create 100,000 jobs, but do not address the main structural deficiency in the nuclear India: lack of uranium.
The capacity of 4,120 megawatts is just a theoretical value, in fact, India produces only 1,790, due to technical problems "temporary", reactor maintenance or lack of political permission to access new uranium mines, according to experts.
This is where staging the "nuclear deal", as known in the country the agreement reached in 2007 with the United States, which will allow India access to international nuclear market in return for separating its military nuclear facilities from civilian ones.
The agreement required the signature of safeguards with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and still requires the approval of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, to which India presents its case today in Vienna.
"What will the nuclear deal will bring extra resources. We have so much uranium in India to cover 100 percent of our needs. So I see this as a trade, "the spokesman told Efe the Indian Atomic Commission, Anil Malhotra.
"The agreement will be important for international nuclear trade. Come foreign reactors. Companies in India will manufacture components. Here the costs are cheaper, so many international companies may be inclined to settle here, as happened to the cars, "he said.
According to Secretary of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Amit Mitra, quoted by IANS, the nuclear deal will bring technological improvements will create opportunities for 400 companies in the country and help alleviate the power shortage.
India is the fifth country in the world with more generation, but the output per capita trivial forcing tens of millions of people to light candles or oil lamps after dark, and frequent power cuts cause losses to the industry.
With an annual production of 653.172 million kilowatt-hours, the country carries an energy deficit of 73,050 million, which the atomic pact will not remove unless carried to India five times its current nuclear capacity (about 17,000 million).
The agreement has not been without controversy: to backup in the West raises the fact that India has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Indian government had to join a faction inside that put on the ropes.
After months of endless discussion, the Government in July had to overcome a confidence vote had two arguments of the opposition: Communists did not accept the deal with the "American Friend" and the BJP's Hindu radicals accused him of jeopardizing the independence of the strategic military program.
"It was the result of misinformation. Is a trade agreement that we do not tie the hands. Our sovereignty will not be compromised, it will only civilian reactors under control. In the military, we can continue to use the plutonium, "continued Malhotra.
India can only use the uranium abroad in the 14 reactors will be under IAEA monitoring l, but scientists applaud the end of "nuclear apartheid" in effect since the country started the atomic race in 1974.