Leading French nuclear giants like Areva, Alstom and EDF are eyeing a share in the 100 billion dollar nuclear commerce which will be generated with India’s atomic isolation having ended now.A day after India and France inked the civil nuclear cooperation agreement in Paris, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it will take quite “some time” before the landmark accord that would allow French companies to sell nuclear technology to India is operationalised.However, some French companies like Areva, the world’s largest builder of nuclear reactors, are working on plans for nuclear work in the Indian market.The Nuclear Power Corporation of India is already in preliminary talks with Areva to sell two latest third-generation Europen Pressurised Reactors(EPR) and nuclear fuel. Areva is the world’s largest builder of nuclear reactors. 80 per cent of France’s electricity needs comes from nuclear energy.Although no contracts have been signed, French officials expect new developments in this regard in the coming months.In all, 35 French firms are reported to be eyeing the civilian nuclear sector in India.“It will take some time before this agreement(with France) or other agreements that we sign to be operationalised,” Singh told reporters accompanying him while returning home after his visit to the US and France. The prime minister said yesterday agreements similar to the Indo-French pact will be negotiated with other European countries too.Asked whether the agreement has finally cleared the decks for French nuclear firms to enter the Indian market, the prime minister said the pact was a framework agreement and there are several steps to be taken by both countries to go through various procedures. “I think the sequencing will be decided on its own merits,” Singh said.Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar also indicated in Paris after the accord was initialled in the presence of the prime minister and French President Nikolas Sarkozy that it will take some time before the French nuclear firms can set up shop in India.Asked how soon can French nuclear companies expect to win contracts, Kakodkar said there were some parallel processes which needed to be followed like having additional protocols in India-specific IAEA safeguards.The world’s second producer of nuclear energy after the US, France is vying to lead a worldwide revival of the industry, fuelled by global warming and rising energy prices.
