NEW DELHI: French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit “early next year” is expected to give a renewed push to the construction of six nuclear power reactors in Maharashtra with French collaboration.
Visiting French minister Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, accompanied by a high-level French delegation, called on minister for atomic energy Jitendra Singh on Tuesday to talk on Indo-French collaboration in nuclear energy and discussed ways to speed up the setting up of the six nuclear reactors at the Jaitapur site, which, once operational, would make it the country’s largest nuclear power generating site with a total capacity of 9,900 MW.
French ambassador to India, Emmanuel Lenain, and nuclear counsellor Thomas Mieusset also joined the ministerial-level deliberations.
The Centre has already accorded ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up six nuclear power reactors of 1,650 MW each in technical cooperation with France as part of an umbrella nuclear deal signed with France in September 2008.
French company EDF last year submitted to Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) its binding techno-commercial offer to build six European pressurised reactors (EPRs) at Jaitapur. In May this year, a high-level team from EDF visited India and had detailed talks with NPCIL officials.
Singh assured French minister Zacharopoulou that the technical, financial and civil nuclear liability issues will be resolved at the earliest by both the sides and well before the scheduled visit of President Macron in early 2023. France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire is also scheduled to visit India by the middle of December.
In the Tuesday meeting, both sides reaffirmed the commitment to the success of the strategic Jaitapur EPR project for access to reliable, affordable and low-carbon energy and agreed to sort out the pending issues at the earliest. NPCIL will be responsible for the construction and commissioning of the units as well as obtaining all necessary permits and consents in India as the owner and future operator of the plant. This includes certification of the EPR technology by the Indian regulator.
India currently has 22 operating reactors, with an installed capacity of 6,780 MWe.