US nuclear mission to come to India

09 January 2009

The US-India Business Council (USIBC), in partnership with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and with certification by the US Department of Commerce, will lead the largest trade mission of US commercial nuclear executives ever to visit India in the coming week.

The delegation, which was scheduled to come to India in the first week of December 2008, was postponed due the November terror strike in Mumbai. (See: US nuclear trade mission postpones India visit)

The USIBC-NEI commercial nuclear mission will include more than 50 senior executives representing more than 30 of the world's leading commercial nuclear companies including General Electric, Bechtel Nuclear, Thorium Power, the Shaw Group, USEC, CH2M Hill, Babcock &Wilcox, Uranium One, Westinghouse, and Black & Veatch among others.

The USIBC-NEI mission will arrive in India just four months after the signing of the US-India Civil nuclear deal.

Announced on 18 July 2005 during the celebrated Washington visit of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the US-India nuclear deal was finally consummated with the signing, on 9 October, of the US-India 123 Agreement by Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Minister, Pranab Mukherjee. (See: Indo-US nuclear deal: Signed, sealed and
delivered)

The inking of the bilateral 123 Agreement capped a whirl of approvals from the Indian government's successful trust vote on July 20 to unanimous nods by the International Atomic Energy Agency and Nuclear Suppliers Group in September, to a final triumph in the US Congress in early October.