India wants to move forward on civil nuke coop with Russia

India wants to move forward on civil nuclear energy cooperation with Russia and reach commercial agreements on the third and fourth reactors of the Kudankulam atomic power plant. Underlining that India and Russia have the oldest collaboration in the field of civil nuclear energy, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said the first reactor of Kudankulam plant will very soon start producing electricity and go up all the way to 1000 megawatts.

Also Read: India exploring more countries for uranium import

The second will go critical in the next six months or so. "And then, there is the third and the fourth in the series which we've been discussing and we want to move forward now to get into a commercial agreement on the third and the fourth," Khurshid told the Voice of Russia.

"And of course, the overall issues that need to be discussed every time you move forward, they are fresh issues and part of the experience of the past collaboration that is put into whatever the new arrangement is," he said.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is setting up two 1,000 MW reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadi with Russian help. Khurshid, who was here to co-chair the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission (IRIGC) on economic, scientific and cultural cooperation ahead of the annual bilateral summit in Moscow later this month, also said that the North-South corridor, in terms of the future of our trade is essential.

"The North-South corridor is in fact both an imperative and it is a great opportunity for times to come. All we need is of course the other countries involved in it," he said. The minister also praised Russia for showing interest in the ambitious pipeline project called the TAPI project, starting from Turkmenistan and going all the way via Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. "This is going to change the landscape of our entire region," he added.