Dr. Anil Kakodkar, head of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), speaking to reporters at Kudankulam stated that India was prepared to export commercially viable civilian nuclear reactors to other developing nations and added that the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NCPIL) was capable of designing, fabricating and erecting commercially viable nuclear reactors. Dr. Kakodkar however pointed out that the approval of the Indian government and of the NSG would be necessary before the NCPIL went ahead with any such initiative1. Noting that the government had allowed the construction of six 1,000MWe light water reactors at Kudankulam, he stated that the total number of reactors at the site could be raised to eight in the future.

On the need to augment uranium production to match the growing fuel demands of nuclear power reactors, Dr. Kakodkar noted that a uranium mine and processing mill would be commissioned shortly at Tummalapalli in Andhra Pradesh and that exploration projects would be taken up in Meghalaya and Karnataka2.

• 1. “India ready to export nuclear reactors,” The The Hindu, January 31, 2008, at http://www.The Hindu.com/2008/01/31/stories/2008013154611300.htm
• 2. R. Vimal Kumar, “Uranium production to be stepped up: Kakodkar,” The The Hindu, January 30, 2008, at http://www.The Hindu.com/2008/01/30/stories/2008013054941300.htm