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Growing Indo-French Nuclear Bonhomie: Ensuring India’s Energy Security
Making a pitch for a slice of India's lucrative nuclear energy market, France signed a landmark nuclear energy trade pact recently with India. The agreement to set up nuclear power reactors in Maharashtra was signed on February 4, 2009 between French nuclear energy giant, Areva and the state-run Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL). French Commerce Minister Anne-Marie Idrac, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithviraj Chavan and Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh were present on the occasion. This deal is significant in the sense that on the one hand it will help India tackle the looming energy crisis while on the other hand open avenues of nuclear trade and also further strengthen the relationship between India and France.
This Indo-French nuclear energy trade agreement is the result of the Indian government’s encouragement to foreign companies to participate in India’s nuclear power programme. According to the agreement, the two companies will start technical and commercial discussions for setting up two to six European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) units of 1,650 MW each at Jaitapur in Maharashtra and fuel supply for the lifetime of the reactors, which could last up to 60 years. A commercial agreement is likely to be signed by the end of this year.
India, set to become one of the largest economies of the world, needs to sustain its current pace of growth rate so as to help eradicate poverty and meet its economic and social development goals. More growth means increased energy needs, and thus the issue of energy security is moving up on the political agenda. Seeing the future energy demand for its developmental process, India is exploring every possible source of energy. The use of nuclear energy is very low. It is below 3 per cent and India seeks to generate power the nuclear way to meet its growing demand for energy. India produces 4,120 MW of electricity from nuclear sources at present and wants to take it upto 20,000 MW by 2020.
With the Indian government focussed on the nuclear sector, more nuclear parks in different states may come up, with India having welcomed foreign participation in setting up reactors. Lately, countries with developed nuclear technologies have been eyeing India’s nuclear energy market, one of the biggest in the world. In recent years Indian nuclear scientists have also made impressive progress in the field of nuclear technology. India, with its cutting edge fast breeder technology can become a major exporter in the coming years. The Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement, designed for trade and commerce in the field of nuclear energy opens doors for countries to trade in nuclear material with India such as enriched uranium for reactors, as also allow India to join the trade.
Earlier, there were numerous constraints on India’s nuclear energy power expansion due to inadequate financing, technology denial regimes, continued non-availability of affordable uranium, limitations of India’s manufacturing industry, and negative public perceptions about nuclear energy. In the period leading to the signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal, there were passionate debates within the country on the viability of nuclear energy as a clean and efficacious way to deal with the impending energy crisis. This helped form positive public opinion towards the nuclear route to energy.
Further, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) waiver and India agreeing to IAEA safeguards of its civilian nuclear facilities have encouraged countries to do nuclear energy business with India. The 45-nation NSG waiver places neither any restriction on fuel supplies to India nor any curbs on its right to build strategic reserves.
This Indo-French deal has put fuel supply concerns to an end and may set a precedent for companies from other countries interested in doing business in India to follow. This trade pact will also help India in developing its nuclear capacity and equipment. There are possibilities that it may lead to collaborations between the two in mining uranium and common investments in mines for supply of fuel for the reactors.
India is concerned about the life-time uninterrupted supply of nuclear fuel and the right to re-process spent fuel. Thus, it is important whether France transfers reprocessing technologies to India for the dedicated new facility that India has to put in place soon in Jaitpur in South off Mumbai in Maharashtra. In the long run India aims at producing locally as much as 80 per cent of the nuclear reactor by the time the last pair of EPRs are constructed. This is the only way local industry can benefit when costly high technologies have to be imported. Ideal conditions still need to be established for taking this nuclear contract further. This is possible only when India ensures transfer of technology from its nuclear dealer countries.
Finally, although French association with India's civil nuclear programme dates back to 1949, they became close when after India’s nuclear test in 1998, France was among the few countries that refrained from criticism. French support has been crucial in India’s quest for rewriting an entire international nuclear regime which subjected India to a nuclear apartheid. Undoubtedly, it is the US-India nuclear deal which opens out this sector, but French support has been important and will remain significant not just because of French clout amidst the NSG but also for supply of nuclear fuel and nuclear reactors. Today Indo-French nuclear energy cooperation reflects their shared willingness to develop a stronger relationship aimed at energy security.
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views either of the Editorial Committee or the Centre for Land Warfare Studies)
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