US keen on n-power deal with India for Westinghouse
27 Feb 2013
The United States has made it clear on that it is keen on following up on the Indo-US nuclear deal of 2008 with business for its nuclear power equipment makers, mainly Westinghouse Electric Co.
At a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said that India and the US are continuing to work on implementation of the civilian nuclear deal despite their differences over the liability clause.
''The Indians have set aside several areas in Gujarat and in Uttar Pradesh for American companies to eventually build such (nuclear) plants and we continue to work through our liability concerns with the Indian government,'' Blake said.
''We hope very much this year that one of these early works agreements can be signed by Westinghouse and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited,'' he said. He stressed the need for more efforts in this direction.
He said the India-US civilian nuclear deal is one of the ''really transformative deals'' that was done during the George W Bush administration.
Blake said the Obama administration is making a determined effort to increase the momentum towards US participation in India's nuclear power programme, but observed that there are several ''challenges'' like the liability clause in India's nuclear law.
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