Nikolay Ponomaryov-Stepnoy, vice president of Kurchatov Institute

— This is mutually beneficial cooperation

India is considering the possibility of building four more units (3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th) at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant with reactors of Russian design, senior official of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited Ashok Chauhan said during Moscow-Delhi video bridge. He said that the 1st unit of Kudankulam NPP might be ready by the end of 2009. Ravi B. Grover, Director of the Strategic Planning Group of Homi Bhabha Atomic Research Center, said that the Indian authorities were going to cooperate with the Russians under other NPP construction projects in other region of India.

After the lifting of the restrictions of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, India has undertaken a very broad position on the nuclear energy market: it is contacting not only with Russia but also with the Untied States, France and other states. In fact, the Indians are facing a serious energy crisis and are trying to overcome it with the help of nuclear power.

Russia has turned out to be a very farseeing partner. We started building nuclear power plants in India as far back as the Soviet times. The other partners – Germany, France and Canada – were less provident and left that market. We were more consistent. As a result, we are presently building two reactors at Kudankulam NPP. India has already cooperated with us in this field and knows that we are reliable partners.

I think that it was a very good decision on India’s part to continue building reactors with our help. There is one more argument in our favor: the restrictions of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group created certain problems at Tarapur Nuclear Power Plant – they were short of fuel but no country agreed to give it. Only Russia lent a hand and helped India out of the fix. We showed that we were ready to help even under very tough restrictions. It was a political decision. We realized that lack of fuel might reduce the safety of Tarapur. The Indians might have resorted to much more dangerous solutions. Thus, by adopting a far-sighted friendly position, Russia prevented proliferation risk in India.

India is not some developing country with no nuclear culture: in fact, it has quite good projects in the field thorium cycle (here India enjoys leadership). The Indians also have fast-breeder and heavy-water reactors. They not only use others’ practices but are also trying to acquire their own experience. So, we can and must cooperate with India – not only because we can give them something but also because we can get something back. This is mutually beneficial cooperation.