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India and Canada Are Ready To Sign Nuclear Power Agreement

Printable version / Version imprimable

Ramtanu Maitra


Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj of India and Foreign Affairs Minister of Canada John Baird during their meeting in New Delhi, on October 14, 2014. (AP photo)

(EIRNS)—Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird, visiting India, told the Indian reporters today that India and Canada are very close to negotiating commercial contracts for a supply of uranium for Indian nuclear reactors. "The nuclear agreement starts a new chapter in relations with India," said Baird, in an exclusive conversation with Times of India. This will be the second nuclear deal in less than two months that India has managed to negotiate; the first was with Australia. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have his first meeting with his Canadian counterpart, Stephen Harper, in Brisbane, Australia, on the sidelines of the G20 summit on Nov. 15-16.

India is ensuring abundant supply of natural uranium for expanding installations of its first-stage heavy water reactors, which use natural uranium, and also for starting the second-stage breeder reactors, which will use natural uranium to generate an inventory of plutonium for its third-generation thorium reactors, which would require plutonium to convert fissionable thorium-232 to fissile uranium-233. Uranium-233 will generate power in India’s third-stage advanced heavy water reactors. A 500MW demonstration breeder reactor is scheduled to be commissioned in 2015.

In addition, this nuclear agreement will also kick-start collaboration between India and Canada on further research on heavy water reactors. Indian heavy water reactors are similar to the CANDU reactors that Canada manufactures. Although, India is unlikely to buy any reactor from Canada, what India will be looking forward to is Canada’s cooperation in developing higher-capacity heavy water reactors.

Also, reports indicate that Canada is keen to supply India with oil and gas. Times of India quoted Baird as saying in New Delhi: "We are excited about being a reliable supplier of oil and gas and helping India attain its development goals. Canadian companies have a lot of experience in green energy, and we hope they can lend their expertise to the new government as it seeks to tackle its challenges."