India and France plan to work together on the development of small modular nuclear reactors, said the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the country.
Modi and the French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the importance of nuclear energy for “strengthening energy security” and the transition to a “low carbon economy”.
He came a few days after Delhi announced his intention to modify his strict nuclear responsibility law, which holds operators responsible for accidents or incidents and was blamed for delays in previous nuclear projects.
Modi should also discuss potential nuclear nuclear investments in American companies during his visit to Washington on Thursday.
The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Delhi and Paris would develop small modular reactors and advanced modular reactors for civil use.
These reactors can be built in factories and transported to places where they can be assembled and installed.
They do not require large expanses of extended land or infrastructure and are much smaller than traditional nuclear reactors.
The Indian Foreign Secretary, Vikram Misri, said that the objective was to initiate “cooperation” because modular reactor technology was “still in its early stages”.
“We intend to be able to cooperate in order to co-do the reactors, co-develop them and co-produce them, we believe that this will allow us to combat complications faced with other conventional projects,” he said .
The proposed partnership signals a change in India’s nuclear energy policy.
The government of Modi, previously known for strict nuclear energy regulations, seems to open up to greater international cooperation and the participation of the private sector.
The Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled ambitious nuclear energy objectives earlier this month, set an objective of generating 100 GW of nuclear energy by 2047.
The government has promised more than $ 2 billion (1.6 billion pounds sterling) for nuclear research and development, most of which will be used in order to develop five Aboriginal reactors by 2033.
The emphasis on small modular reactors also represents a change in the collaboration of India with France on nuclear energy.
The countries had already planned to build the largest nuclear power plant in the world in the state of Indian Western Maharashtra.
However, the project has been selected for more than a decade, mainly due to the clauses introduced to the India nuclear responsibility law following charges that India had previously left Western companies to research From the 1984 devastating gas leak from a pesticide plant in the city of Bhopal as well as concerns about nuclear security following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
Modi is currently in the United States for a two-day visit where he will hold meetings with President Donald Trump and business leaders.
Earlier in the week, the Federal Minister for Petroleum of India, Hardeep Puri, suggested that nuclear energy would be on the agenda of the two leaders.
On Tuesday, the American vice-president JD Vance met Modi on the sidelines of the AI summit in Paris and discussed the ways in which Washington could help Delhi to diversify his energy sources by investing in American nuclear technology, said Press agencies citing a declaration of the White House.
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