India holds talks with Russia, US and France on new nuclear plants.

9/3 Tass 183

NEW DELHI, March 9 (Itar-Tass) - India plans to build five nuclear
power plants on the coast of the Indian Ocean, and now conducts talks with
Russia, the US and France on technical assistance in their construction,
chairman of the Indian atomic energy commission Srikumar Banerjee told
reporters, as quoted by the Asian Age newspaper on Tuesday.


"Cooperation with those countries will depend on their proposals," he
emphasised. "We plan to build two atomic energy sets each in the Gujarat,
Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Orissa states."
Indian ecologists already gave a permission for the construction of a
nuclear power plant in Haripur, West Bengal, in the construction of which
Russia is ready to participate. This is provided for in a draft of a new
Russian-Indian agreement on cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear
energy, which will be signed during the visit by the Russian prime
minister to New Delhi this month.
The construction of the first stage of India's most powerful nuclear
power plant Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu State, is nearing completion with
Russian technical assistance. Two first power units with 1,000 megawatts
each will be put into operation there by mid-2010. All in all, six power
blocks are planned to be built according to Russian technologies at this
plant.
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