The NSG waiver is a pleasant surprise that comes before Dmitriy Medvedev’s “December visit ^rus^”:http://www.scrf.gov.ru/news/343.html to New Delhi. As a reminder, Atomstroyexport has been building 2 units at Kudankulam since 2002. In January 2007, Rosatom and India’s Department of Atomic Energy signed a “memorandum of understanding on nuclear cooperation”:http://www.rosatom.com/en/news/3588_25.01.2007, which articulated future plans.
When the MoU was signed, there was “a firm agreement”:http://www.rosatom.com/en/news/3590_25.01.2007 on the construction of *4 additional units at Kudankulam* (which would bring the total number of units up to 6 at the site, all VVER-1000, constructed by Atomstroyexport). However, for over a year and a half now, *the Russians have patiently held off on consummating this agreement until the NSG waiver was in place*. The wait is now seemingly over.
As I “wrote here”:http://www.wmdinsights.com/I22/I22_RU3_EagerToIncrease.htm, some say the Russian nuclear industry “expect[s] to *gain 25-30%* of the Indian nuclear energy market” and *build up to 10* reactors. But *we shall see whether additional projects for Atomstroyexport will be firmed up during the December Russo-Indian summit*…
By the way, construction of the two grandfathered units at Kudankulam is moving forward. In late June, Atomstroyexport “completed shipments of fuel assemblies”:http://www.rosatom.com/en/news/10697_26.06.2008 to the site (as has been “noted elsewhere”:http://russianforces.org/nuclear/2008/06/kudankulam-fuel-shipments-comp.shtml). In July, the “progress of physical construction”:http://www.npcil.nic.in/kapp.asp of the units was at *86.9%* and *76.4%*. The Joint Coordinating Committee on Construction of Kudankulam has also “just finished meeting in Moscow”:http://www.rosatom.com/en/press-releases/11604_02.09.2008.
Finally, here’s “a link ^rus^”:http://www.atomstroyexport.ru/about/vacancy/ if you are interested in finding a job with Atomstroyexport. (Though they are picky in terms of who they hire, as “I previously noted”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1611/wanna-work-at-bushehr-now-you-can.)