India and the US have signed the first nuclear deal. It will be another history that the same US that imposed sanctions on India when the Vajpayee government exploded the nuclear bomb is making a nuclear deal with India while the same BJP is in power.
It is a mystery in which areas India will use nuclear energy. India’s neighbors are two nuclear powers, China and Pakistan. Therefore, there are clear indications that India is moving further in nuclear weapons and nuclear energy production.
With energy security in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump reaffirmed their commitment to work together on US-designed nuclear reactors in India, including through “technology transfer necessary to generate large-scale nuclear power.”
India and the United States will now work together on nuclear energy. This is the first time that the United States has changed its stance of hostility towards India on nuclear energy. India will now become a friend of India’s nuclear weapons technologies.
The India-US civilian nuclear deal was considered in 2008. It was discussed. But no progress has been made. No new American nuclear reactor has come to Indian soil in the 21st century.
Modi and Trump have announced that the India-US nuclear energy stalemate is now over. Innovative small modular reactors will also come to India. Prime Minister Modi and Trump today welcomed the 2025 budget announcements to amend the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLNDA) for Nuclear Reactors in a joint statement.
The two leaders also decided to establish bilateral arrangements in line with the CLNDA. The Russian nuclear power plant is already working on additional reactors at Kudamkulam in Tamil Nadu, which it continued to do even after India passed the new nuclear liability regime.
Westinghouse Electric Company is in talks to sell 1,000 nuclear reactors to India after the India-US nuclear deal was signed. India has also identified greenfield sites for building large passively cooled reactors. The Indian government and Westinghouse are also discussing a plan to build six 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors at Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh.
In his meeting with US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, Prime Minister Modi also discussed industrial cooperation and civil nuclear energy, emphasizing small modular reactors.
