On November
17, 2006 the US Senate passed the bill to implement civilian
nuclear energy cooperation with India. During July 2005, India and
the USA had reached an agreement on the separation of civil and
military nuclear plants and technology transfer for civil nuclear
plants.
The Indo-US
nuke deal brings a reliable source of nuclear technology that can
be exploited to set up nuclear power plants in India. This in turn
could possibly go a long way in quenching India's current and
projected thirst for power. Needless to say that the companies
like BHEL, Larsen & Toubro, KSB Pumps and Honeywell Automation
that provide products and services for nuclear power plants would
be the primary beneficiaries in this scenario.
India's power
generation today is approximately 15% below the actual
consumption. As per the energy and resources institute (TERI) the
projected economic growth of 7-8% over the next 20 years will
quadruple India's energy needs.
Coal, the main
source of India's energy needs today, is peaking its exploitation
and the gas supply from Iran via a pipeline is unlikely to
materialise due to the US opposition.
Hence if
India's power generation has to keep pace with the burgeoning
economy, nuclear power has to provide a significant component of
it, as opposed to its current contribution of 3%. A very plausible
scenario to look at is the building of nuclear power plants with
the help of the
USA.