French Nuclear Firm Signs Preliminary Deal To Build Six Nuclear Plants In India

Paris: Nuclear Power Corp of India has signed a memorandum of understanding with French utility EDF for the construction of six EPR nuclear reactors at Jaitapur.

With this agreement, the EDF takes over the long-delayed project from French nuclear group Areva, which will sell its reactor arm to EDF later this year.

The Jaitapur project is at the preliminary technical studies stage after getting initial environmental clearance in 2010, the EDF said in a statement. A contract for pre-engineering studies was signed by Areva and the NPCIL last April.

The EDF said that in the next few months it would continue work started by Areva and NPCIL to secure certification for the EPR reactor in India and to finalise the economic and financial conditions, and technical specifications of the project, supervised by Indian atomic organisation DAE.