Daniel Roderick, the chief executive of Toshiba Corp’s Westinghouse Electric said he expects to sign a deal in June to build six nuclear reactors in India. “It may take until, I’m going to say, early June, which is the next time that there’s going to be a government-to-government meeting with India,” Roderick told Reuters in Washington.
The deal would be the first nuclear commercial power project since the United States and India agreed in 2008 to cooperate in the civil nuclear arena.
Roderick added that Westinghouse was still working on details of the nuclear operator liability issue, but that progress had been made. “We are certainly comfortable enough to go to the next step from where we are right now, and if India continues to deliver on its milestones for the insurance program, then that should satisfy what Westinghouse needs,” he remarked.
India wants to increase its nuclear capacity to 63,000 megawatts (MW) by 2032, from 5,780 MW, in an effort to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and mitigate the dangerous effects of climate change.
“We have submitted everything that we need to India and they have reviewed it and they are in the process now of finalizing the paperwork,” Roderick noted.
