India looking for additional sites for Russian nuclear reactors: Jaishankar

MUMBAI: India is looking for additional sites for Russian nuclear reactors, while the discussion with the French on the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power plant project is underway, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday.

Responding to a question on nuclear collaboration with foreign countries not taking off as expected, Jaishankar said the manner in which the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act 2010, was framed required a lot of interaction with foreign suppliers to see how their concerns could be addressed.

"This has taken some time and that applies to some countries," he said in an apparent reference to the US companies, at a press conference in Mumbai.

He said with regard to some other countries where the liability issue is better understood or they don't have the same degree of concern, because the nature of their industry is very different.

"We have discussions underway where Kudankulam (by the Russians) has progressed. We are actually looking at additional sites for Russian reactors. With regards to the French we have ongoing discussions with them," Jaishankar said.

The External Affairs Minister was in Russia last December when the two sides signed some "very important" agreements related to the construction of the future power-generating units of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant.

Russia has built four nuclear power plants of 1,000 MW each at Kudankulam and two more reactors of the same capacity are being built. It is the largest nuclear park in the country.

India signed nuclear deals with the US and French in 2008. Post these agreements, Mithi Virdhi and Kovadda were earmarked for the US and Jaitapur for the French.

However, the projects did not take off as expected due to several factors one of which was the stringent clauses of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act 2010.