December 04, 2008
Russia offers India investment option in uranium project in Siberia
Russia has offered India the option of investing in its upcoming international uranium enrichment centre at Angarsk in Siberia, in lieu of paying for nuclear fuel to be supplied to the Koodankulam nuclear station, which is being built with Russian assistance.
At the delegation level talks between India and Russia during Dr Manmohan Singh’s recent Moscow visit, the Russians indicated at the possibility of India investing in the centre as one of the ways for India to pay for the nuclear fuel to be supplied the Koodankulam plant in Tamil Nadu.
An Indian government official involved in the exercise said that “The Russian government has proposed that fuel supplies from the Angarsk facility could be considered for units being set up through Russian assistance in the country. The investments that India might make in the Angarsk enrichment centre would, in such a scenario, are considered as payment for the uranium fuel to be supplied to Koodankulam.”
The Angarsk International Uranium Enrichment Centre is being set up by Russia for supply of uranium to countries with nuclear energy programs under the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. The Angarsk facility has traditionally been associated with Russian civilian nuclear program and had been kept completely out of the erstwhile Soviet Union’s atomic weapons program, thereby, making it easier for the plant to be put under IAEA control. The centre is expected to produce only low enriched uranium, which cannot be diverted for building nuclear weapons. Uranium enriched to low levels can be used as fuel for nuclear power plants, but higher levels of enrichment make it possible to divert the fuel for the construction of the core of a nuclear bomb.
Russia is currently helping build 2 nuclear units with 1,000 MW light water reactors at Koodankulam and talks are in advanced stages for collaborations on four additional units at the same site in the wake of the pact reached between India and Russia in January 2007. Russia has committed to refuel the Koodankulam station throughout its service. The project’s first unit, being built in collaboration with Russian firm Atoms troy export, is likely to be commissioned in the second half of 2008.
