Indian civil nuclear liability bill leaves Russians apprehensive

Moscow: Russian nuclear contractors are concerned that India's civil nuclear liability bill may result in increased project costs, a top Russian expert said Wednesday.

According to Anton Khlopkov, director, Centre of Energy and Security Studies and editor-in-chief of the Nuclear Club magazine, the civil nuclear liability legislation passed by the Indian Parliament "is raising concerns in Russia".

"It is currently being examined in order to understand what additional accountability the new regulations impose on Russian builders," he said, adding that Russian contractors would not like to see safety issues raise project costs.

But he also said the bill was not likely to have any immediate adverse impact on Indo-Russian cooperation in atomic power generation.

Participating in a Moscow-New Delhi video conference on Wednesday, Khlopkov expressed the hope that the bill would not affect future bilateral cooperation in civil nuclear energy.

Besides the two 1000 MW VVER-1000 light water reactors in the final stages of completion Russia is slated to construct at least two more units at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu and an additional four at Haripur in West Bengal under a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement.