As the nuclear power industry expands in the U.S. and India, massive trade opportunities – and lower costs for plant construction - will result for both countries, experts said at a recent Georgia Institute of Technology seminar.

The U.S. Congress on Oct. 1 approved the U.S. India Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation. It gives India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and technology in exchange for allowing inspections of its civilian nuclear reactors by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

U.S. companies will now be able to work on nuclear power plants in India, which plans to increase its nuclear power output from 3,800 megawatts to at least 30,000 megawatts over the next 25-30 years. The U.S. currently produces about 100,000 megawatts of nuclear power.

 Under the agreement, India will be able to provide engineers and technology for the U.S. nuclear power plant expansion. Should Southern Co. win approval for two new reactors at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Ga. it might be able to hire engineers from India as the U.S. faces a critical manpower shortage in the nuclear field.

 Speaking at a Nov. 13 Georgia Tech seminar, Anupam Srivastava, director of the Asia program at the University of Georgia’s Center for International Trade and Security, estimated that U.S. companies will get from $10 billion to $12 billion in business over the next seven or eight years from India’s nuclear expansion.

The nuclear trade agreement could also lead to increased cooperation between the two countries on defense and space programs, Srivastava predicted. On Nov. 14, India landed a small, unmanned craft on the moon.

Srivastava called the India-U.S. nuclear deal  “a litmus test, creating a new paradigm for U.S.-India relations.”

India had been considered a rogue nuclear state since 1974, when it tested a nuclear bomb without having signed the Nuclear Non-ProliferationTreaty. Countries that had signed the treaty, including the United States, were prohibited  from supplying any nuclear equipment or fuel to India, even for civilian power generation.

 The new agreement separates India’s civilian and military nuclear programs and allows international inspection of the civilian facilities.

Amandeep Singh Gill, who is at Stanford University on sabbatical from his position as director of India’s Disarmament and International Security Affairs office, called the nuclear deal “the first step in realizing the potential of U.S.-India relations in the 21st century.”

That the United States is trusting India to participate in nuclear trade is a “psychological game changer” that will likely lead to progress between the two countries in other fields, Mr. Gill said at the Georgia Tech forum.

In the United States, applications for 26 new reactors are pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said spokesman Joey Ledford.

Southern Co. wants to build two new 1,150 megawatt reactors at Plant Vogtle. Vogtle currently has two reactors, each capable of producing 1,215 megawatts of power.

As India’s nuclear industry grows, it will be able to provide the U.S. sector with engineers, said V. Siddhartha, member of a United Nations committee on nuclear non-proliferation who spoke in his personal capacity at the Georgia Tech seminar.  A June report by the American Physical Society cited “critical shortages” in the U.S. nuclear workforce, in part because of a 30-year lull in nuclear plant construction here.

“Insourcing” engineers, parts, components and sub-systems from India could lower the capital costs of U.S. nuclear plant construction, Mr. Siddhartha said. India is also researching nuclear reactors that use a chemical element, Thorium, as fuel.

 "India's vast Thorium reserves - the second largest in the world - could very well become the world's nuclear fuel of choice by the middle of the century,” Mr. Siddhartha said in an interview. 

The business opportunity is a two-way opportunity,” he said of the U-S.-India nuclear deal. “It’s not a one-way opportunity.”

2008 The Agio Press, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without expressed permission.

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