Areva team to resume talks from next week on Jaitapur project

A high-level team from French nuclear reactor supplier Areva will arrive here next week to participate in the ongoing negotiations with the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) for the supply of two evolutionary pressurised reactors (EPRs) of 1,650 Mw each for the 9,900-Mw Jaitapur project in Maharashtra.

“NPC and Areva will resume negotiations next week,” Atomic Energy Commission Chairman R K Sinha told Business Standard. He added the Areva team was in the city last month.

The negotiations are going on at a slow pace, as both the parties have yet to agree to share the cost of setting up additional safety measures in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan.

NPC and Areva had entered into an early works contract in December 2010 but after the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011, the negotiations took a twist.

An NPC official, who did not want to be named, said: “Cost is a key element but safety cannot be compromised. Therefore, it is taking a time to arrive at an acceptable agreement, whereby the per unit tariff will not go out of reach but will be quite competitive to coal- and gas-based power projects.”

The official added that the civil nuclear liability regime is another crucial issue on which Areva is still keen to have further talks.

Villagers and non-government organisations are in the midst of chalking out their plans to step up opposition against the Jaitapur project, both domestically and outside India.

Meanwhile, Sinha said the Kudankulam nuclear project unit I of 1,000 MW, which was synchronised to grid on October 22, currently produces 310 Mw and runs at 40 per cent capacity. He added that NPC is in the midst of getting clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board for generating power up to 50 per cent capacity.