WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States hoped Wednesday that India will soon announce the location of two sites for US firms to build multi-billion dollar nuclear power plants, in line with a landmark deal struck last year.
The announcement could be made when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Mumbai and New Delhi from Friday through Monday, according to Robert Blake, her pointman for relations with India and neighboring countries.
"We hope that (we) will be in a position to announce publicly those two sites where US companies can have exclusive rights to locate reactors and sell reactors to the Indians," Blake told reporters ahead of the trip.
"That's a major opportunity for American companies, and opens up as much as 10 billion dollars worth of exports to India," said Blake, the assistant secretary of state for south Asian affairs.
The Wall Street Journal, quoting people familiar with the issue, reported Wednesday that India has already chosen sites for the US-built reactors.
But it said the announcement probably will not lead to immediate contracts for firms like GE-Hitachi and Westinghouse Electric Co. to begin building plants.
In October last year, then secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee signed a pact to open up sales of civilian nuclear technology to India for the first time in three decades.
The deal offers India access to US technology and cheap atomic energy in return for allowing UN inspections of some of its civilian nuclear facilities -- but not military nuclear sites.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
