Westinghouse announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding  with NPCIL agreeing to negotiate an early works agreement (EWA) for the construction of up to six AP1000 units at the Mithi Virdi site in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Westinghouse said that the MoU “represents significant progress toward the realization of the India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement signed in 2008.”

Gary Urquhart, vice president and managing director of Westinghouse India, said the agreement would “allow Westinghouse and NPCIL to continue the work necessary for keeping the Mithi Virdi project moving forward.”

Aided by imported uranium and new plants, India’ s Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL) generated 32,455 million units of electricity in the year ended March 31, 2012, 22.5 per cent higher than the year before. Currently, NPCIL operates 19 nuclear power reactors in the country. NPCIL said revenue was $1.9 billion compared to about $1.5 billion in the prior year according to Power Engineering.

The overall average availability factor of the plants continued to be high at 91 per cent according to a report in Business Line. The average capacity factor (CF — the ratio of actual output to potential output) for the nine reactors, of the 19 in operation, fueled with imported uranium recorded an all-time high at 97 per cent. The overall average capacity factor for NPCIL reactors was 79 per cent, against the target of 66 per cent. (India Expert note: hmm, when I worked at power plants in Texas, management would have been in trouble for targeting just 66 percent availability; perhaps this low target was driven by the lack of Uranium in the past).

By 2017, NPCIL has planned the launch of about 17,000 MW capacity in the current Plan  by setting up 10 Pressurizes Heavy Water Reactors of 700 MW each (based on original Canadian Candu technology)  and it hopes to start on 10 Light Water Reactors of 1,000 MW each based on international cooperation from France, Russia and the United States.

France’s Areva has signed an EUR 7 billion framework agreement with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) for the construction of two EPR reactors at Jaitapur in Maharashtra state, to be commissioned in 2017-18, along with uranium fuel of 25 years.  Alstom will supply the turbine- generators separately.  Site work will begin next year with a view to begin construction from 2013.   Jaitapur is to be a 9600 MWe energy park with six EPR units.  Areva promises “maximum localization” of component production, and points to its 2009 agreement with Bharat Forge of Pune to set up by 2012 a new casting and forging facility in India for heavy nuclear components, to supply both domestic and export markets.

“In the field of nuclear energy, negotiations have reached an advance stage to pave the way for launching of nuclear power reactors in Jaitapur in partnership with Indian industry,” India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a joint news conference in New Delhi with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, while on a four-day India working trip, accompanied by several chiefs of French companies. NPCIL had earlier signed an initial agreement with Areva for the supply of six nuclear reactors in February 2009. On Nov. 29, NPCIL received environmental clearance for the Jaitapur plant, clearing another vital hurdle for the project.

The agreements were signed by Areva’s Chief Executive Anne Lauvergeon and NPCIL’s Chairman and Managing Director S. K. Jain. The pacts with Areva are likely to speed up the French company’s entry into the sizable Indian civilian nuclear power sector, ahead of its American rivals.

The process of setting up the reactors slowed after the U.S.-based companies raised concerns over a law passed by India in August that made them liable for damages in the event of a nuclear accident. Subsequently similar concerns have been expressed from France, the UK, Canada and elsewhere. The India Experts expects India take up these concerns in side agreements and regulations that convert its new liability law into actionable rules of engagement. Stay tuned.

Prior to President Obama’s visit to New Delhi, India plans to sign a critical international agreement that defines the terms of liability and compensation in the event of an atomic accident, says the Indian Express newspaper. The CSC or Convention on the Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, has been the  subject of intense negotiations in the last few weeks between Delhi, Washington, Vienna (where the the International Atomic Energy Agency is based) .

In a September 2008 letter of intent, India told the U.S. it would sign the CSC. The Hindu reports that American nuclear suppliers had insisted on this because they said the existing Indian and international law would leave them exposed to potentially unlimited claims for damages by Indian victims in the event of a nuclear accident involving U.S.-supplied reactors.  The CSC  includes  draft national law that signatories are supposed to model their domestic legislation on. India  says its new liability law conforms to the CSC  but American officials say the Indian provisions on the nuclear operator’s right of recourse against a supplier (Section 17(b) and Section 46) in the event of an accident don’t conform to CSC recommendations.n

Last week, India’s Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament  passed a civilian nuclear liability bill that would pave the way for foreign companies to join a nuclear-reactor building spree. This bill caps foreign suppliers’ liability in case of an accident at $320 million.

The bill now goes to the upper house, the Rajya Sabha before being signed into law. The India Expert does not expect major battles at either of these levels.

Nuclear equipment suppliers from the United States, Japan, Canada, France, Russia and India, including Westinghouse Electric and General Electric, have salivated over this nation’s $150-billion nuclear market. While the French and Russian entities have sovereign ownership, the stockholder-owned American and Japanese entities have been skittish about market entry until the liability issue is settle.

The passage of nuclear liability legislation is one more step in the global commercialization of India’s nuclear energy market.