Westinghouse in “advanced talks” to seal nuclear deal with India

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Washington beginning June 7, Toshiba Corp’s Westinghouse Electric and India are in advanced stages of discussions for the company to build six nuclear reactors in India, said India’s ambassador to the US Arun Singh. The deal between India’s NPCIL and Westinghouse would be the first such contract after the two countries struck a transformational nuclear deal in 2008.  

“There is a very detailed and advanced negotiation between Westinghouse and India,” Mr Singh said on June 1. “The issues that remain to be worked out are related to cost and financing,” he added.
Mr Modi will hold wide-ranging talks with US President Barack Obama, the last full-spectrum bilateral meeting between the two leaders before the US presidential elections in November. The Indian leader will also address the joint session of the US Congress on June 8, a rare honour given to visiting foreign leaders.

The two leaders are expected to review the progress on the deal to build six AP-1000 nuclear reactors, one of the important likely outcomes during Mr Modi’s fifth visit to the US.     

The landmark civil nuclear deal in 2008 transformed relations between the world’s most populous and largest democracies, but the implementation of the agreement has been hobbled by the US concerns over India’s civil nuclear liability law.  

The breakthrough on the Westinghouse deal happened after it was decided to relocate the planned project to the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, said informed sources.  The original site proposed for the project was in Gujarat.