Despite raging protests as well as the post-Fukushima concerns about safety of nuclear plants, French major Areva is pushing for the signing of the commercial agreement for reactors at Jaitapur by mid-2011.
“We hope to sign the commercial agreement for Jaitapur by mid-year,” said Luc
Oursel, chief operating officer of Areva, who is also a member of the executive board of the company. “We are waiting for the framing of rules and regulations on India’s N-liability law,” he added.
The Jaitapur park is proposed to house European Pressurised Reactors (EPR) and a framework agreement for the same was signed between Areva and the Nuclear Power Cooperation of India during French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s visit to India in December 2010.
Despite Fukushima, Areva is hopeful and its optimism could have got endorsement when PM Manmohan Singh recently batted for nuclear energy.
But Post-Fukushima, the European Union had decided to do a stress-test on their nuclear reactors to assess how they would withstand earth quakes and rising water-levels. So doesn’t Areva have to take a re-look at the Jaitapur plant?
Areva says the EPR design could have withstood a Fukushima-like situation. “Had it been an EPR, Fukushima accident couldn’t have happened. We have six generators in seismic-designed buildings to ensure power supply is not disrupted,” said Oursel.
The biggest impediment, however, is the confusion over India’s N-liability law, which has a stringent clause on supplier-liability. “We have conveyed to the French that they should wait for the framing of the rules and regulations of the liability law,” says Ranjan Mathai, India’s ambassador to France.