A monthafter their historic deal on civil nuclear cooperation was finalized,Indian and Americans officials and nuclear industry executives aretrying to figure out the next step.
That was the topic ofdiscussion here Friday at an industry session on cooperation betweenIndia and the United States regarding nuclear energy. Participantsagreed that among the major challenges in building more atomic powerplants in India are overcoming the shortages of equipment suppliers andnuclear engineers.
The head of the U.S. Nuclear RegulatoryCommission, Dale Klein, says both countries will be working together toovercome those hurdles.
"Both the U.S. industry and theindustry in India need to solve both of those aspects - both theequipment and the people," he said. "I think the U.S. can certainlyhelp India in terms of sharing technologies that have worked well inthe academic arena. We can look at sharing joint curricula and we canalso learn from how India does its educational program, so it's atwo-way street."
The deal, which removed New Delhi fromdecades on the international nuclear blacklist, allows the UnitedStates to supply India with nuclear fuel, reactors and other componentsto expand its civil atomic power industry.
India was ostracizedfor carrying out nuclear weapons tests and not signing internationalaccords on limiting the spread of such weapons.
India only has17 civil nuclear plants, supplying less than three percent of thecountry's electrical power generation. Experts say India will need upto 700,000 more megawatts of electricity by the year 2030 for itsbooming economy.
The chairman of one of India's prominentcompanies in the nuclear industry, Syamal Gupta of TCE ConsultingEngineers, says the nuclear deal will have high-tech "spinoff effects"beyond atomic technology.
"India also stands to gain out ofthis civil nuclear deal in terms of cooperation between the twocountries in advanced computing, weather forecasting, avionic systemsfor civil aircraft, components for remote testing, commercial satellitesystems, medical and bio-tech."
U.S. and Indian government andindustry officials are cautioning that, despite the landmark deal,American nuclear technology does not have an inherent advantagepenetrating India's nascent civil atomic market. French and Japanesecompanies will also be competitors. And experts say China is likely tobecome an exporter of reactor technology in a few years.