The pacts for units III and IV of the Kudankulam nuclear plant are "almost initialled" and would have been signed already but for the protests, Russian Ambassador Alexander Kadakain said.
The pacts for units III and IV of the Kudankulam nuclear plant are "almost initialled" and would have been signed last December but for the protests, Russian Ambassador Alexander Kadakain said today and maintained that the units don't fall under the recent nuclear liability law.
"The agreements are almost initialled.....just some minor issues to be worked," he said and added that enhancing the cooperation in civil nuclear will be one of key issues which will figure in the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is coming here on Wednesday morning to attend BRICS Summit on Thursday.
Terming the decision of the state government to allow resumption of work at the Russia-built Kudankulam nuclear plant as "correct but long over due", the envoy said the stalling of the work at the site due to protests by "so called protesters" had cost around USD one million to India every day over the last six months.
He said Russia showed lot of patience with its experts sitting idle all this while and added that it could take another four to six months for the plant with two 1,000 MW reactors to start production.
Talking about the agreement for units III and IV at Kudankulam, he said, "the agreements are practically ready. It is almost initialled.....It could have signed in December if not being blocked by the protesters" and hoped that India's civil nuclear liability will not apply to new units as they were "extensions" of the old project which predated the liability regime.
"Extension of the same project.....We understand that if you want same terms of credit, we get same terms of conditions.....It would be logical....Nuclear liability is a latter invention," he said when asked about whether the India's liability regime will apply to units III and IV.
Russia is now expecting and awaiting for India to propose another site to it after the informal proposal for locating a nuclear facility in Haripur was met with strong protests in West Bengal, Kadakin said. "Only the name (Haripur) was taken and the protests started," he said.
He said, "We are in complete agreement with India to go ahead with the serial production of nuclear plants in India," while referring to the nuclear roadmap sealed by the two countries in 2010.
Asked about the recent comments that there was a 'foreign hand' in the protests at the site of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP), the Russian envoy said, "(The person) who rang the bell was me...."
He said questions should have been asked as to "who is providing them (protesters) with tents... who is feeding them...We had hints of foreign hand."
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