Andhra Pradesh gets first nuke plants under Indo-US N-treaty

Toshiba Corp’s Westinghouse Electric will relocate a planned project to build six nuclear reactors in India, said officials, bringing the first deal stemming from a US-India civil nuclear accord struck over a decade ago closer to reality.

The six AP-1000 reactors would be built in Andhra Pradesh, after the original site proposed for the multibillion-dollar project, in Gujarat, faced local opposition.

The breakthrough com-es ahead of a June 7-8 visit by Mr Modi to Washing-ton, where he will be hosted by President Barack Obama for a final summit before the US presidential election in November, and will address both houses of Congress.

US lawmakers ratified the civil nuclear accord three years after it was struck in 2005, as part of an attempt to deepen the strategic relationship with India, but have expressed growing dismay over its failure to yield follow-on deals for US-based reactor makers like Westinghouse.

Indian central and state officials confirmed that NPCIL, which would operate the plants, had made a down payment on 2,000 acres of land in Srikaku-lam district of AP.

“The land acquisition was stuck for over a decade, but now it’s coming to a conclusion,” Ajay Jain, energy secretary of AP, said, adding the purchase would close this year. “Construction can begin in 2017.”

Around 90 percent of farmers had agreed to sell their land, they were being well compensated and no court cases were pending, Mr Jain added.

Sources confirmed that the site was being acqui-red for Westinghouse, which plans to build six AP-1000 pressurised water reactors, each with a design capacity of 1,100 megawatts.