OREANDA-NEWS. September 10, 2008. Rosatom welcomes lifting of embargo on nuclear cooperation with India and is ready to discuss new NPP construction projects

Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation welcomes the decision of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to lift their restrictions on nuclear cooperation with India imposed after a nuclear weapons test in that country and is ready to discuss new NPP construction projects, Director General of Rosatom Sergey Kiriyenko said today.

“It was an absolutely right decision and Russia was one of its initiators,” Kiriyenko said. He pointed out that the United States was of the same opinion. “This is an example of mutual understanding between Russian and American nuclear power engineers,” Kiriyenko said.

He said that India had flawless reputation in the field of nuclear nonproliferation. India is a vast country and has a big share in the global energy consumption. The development of nuclear energy in India will help to its energy security and to reduce CO2 emission worldwide.

Russia is building two reactors in India – this project avoided restrictions as the relevant agreement had been signed before the ban was imposed. In Feb 2008 Russia and India initialed an agreement for the construction of four more reactors and this decision will make this agreement legal.

“I think that this year we will finish our work on this agreement and may even start to work on new projects,” Kiriyenko said.