New Delhi, October 16
In a significant move ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington next month, India tonight announced sites for setting up light water reactor-based nuclear plants in cooperation with the United States, France and Russia in furtherance of the implementation of civil nuclear agreements signed with these nations.

Power plants would be set up in cooperation with the US at Chhayamithi Virdi in Gujarat and Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh in cooperation with the US, while Jaitapaur in Maharashtra has been designated as the site for the plant to be set up with France’s assistance, it was officially announced by the External Affairs Ministry.

Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu and Haripur in West Bengal have been chosen as the sites for power plants to be set up in cooperation with Russia.

Soon after India secured a waiver from the nuclear suppliers’ group (NSG) in September last year, it signed a nuclear deal with France. The historic Indo-US nuclear deal was signed thereafter while the agreement with Russia was inked in December last year during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to India.

Since then, India has signed nuclear deals with Kazakhstan, Namibia, Mongolia and Argentina also. It has also notified to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) its plan that formally separates India’s civilian and military nuclear establishments. The plan, which was announced in March 2006, has been approved by the IAEA and the safeguards agreement signed by India with the international nuclear watchdog is now operational.

The announcement of the sites for power plants to be set up with the US would help the two countries in speeding up their negotiations over the reprocessing agreement. The reprocessing agreement is expected to be completed before Prime Minister Singh visits the US on November 24 as the first state guest of the Obama administration.