Russia firm to ink USD 780 mn nuclear fuel contract with India

Moscow, Feb 7 (PTI) Leading Russian company TVEL is
expected to sign a USD 780 million nuclear deal with India
next week for the supply of fuel for atomic power plants.

Under the deal likely to be inked in Mumbai on Wednesday,
TVEL, one the world's largest nuclear fuel producers, will
supply 2,000 metric tonnes of uranium pellets to the Indian
nuclear power plants (NPPs), RIA Novosti reported Saturday.

"The contract, if signed, could make Russia the first
country to supply nuclear fuel to India since the Nuclear
Suppliers Group lifted a three-decade ban on nuclear fuel
sales to the country on September 6, 2008," a spokesman for
Russia's state atomic power corporation Rosatom was quoted
as saying.

Russia is building two 1000 VVER light water reactors for
the Kudankulam NPP in Tamil Nadu and during President Dmitry
Medvedev's New Delhi visit in December last year, the two
countries agreed to build four more units.

TVEL is one of the world's leading producers of nuclear
fuel. It supplies atomic fuel to 73 commercial and 30 research
reactors in 13 countries. PTI