The signing of India-France cooperation on ‘Peaceful use of nuclear energy’ was signed on September 30, 2008. It was mainly for the construction of Jaitapur Nuclear Plant (JNPP).
This power plant of 9900 MW has been envisaged to be a 1650 MW nuclear reactor and it will be the largest nuclear energy park in the country. Officials said that after 10 years of signing the agreement the energy project is still under negotiation. The signing of the agreement occurred before the signing of a nuclear cooperation agreement between India and the USA.
Shekhar Basu, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and retired from the post of Secretary of Atomic Energy, said that this plant has got necessary clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests. RK Sinha, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission said, “It took longer than expected. The negotiation first started with the French company Areva, but the company’s EDF last year took over its nuclear reactor”. Anil Kakodkar, the former president of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) Secretary during the signing of the nuclear deal between India and France, declared the negotiations are still ongoing.
Kakodkar said that due to the agreement between India and France and the support of France and America, India could become a member of ITER. ITER is an international fusion research and engineering project. Due to this agreement, focus on development and nuclear energy applications in areas such as agricultural science, biology, earth science has been taken care of.
Kakodkar said that besides this, when India was interacting with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for its nuclear reactors for security measures, then the US and Russia helped create a “positive atmosphere” .
