On the final day of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US, that country on Tuesday extended its Defence Cooperation Agreement with India by another 10 years. The pact, which was to expire in June next year, will now be in force till 2025.
India and Russia will take new steps to reinvent their strategic partnership when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin on December 7, with a civil nuclear cooperation agreement and an extended defence cooperation pact, expected to be the highlight of the meeting.
Giving a fillip to their ties, India and Russia today signed 19 pacts, including three in civil nuclear field and one for purchase of 29 MiG-29 fighters besides inking the revised agreement on Gorshkov aircraft carrier, a deal that was stuck for three years over price.
Officials of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited are inspecting the first unit of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tirunelveli district after removing dummy fuel from the reactor prior to getting clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory board to upload the real fuel.
Serious question marks remain over how effectively, or whether at all, India can actually execute a disarming CF strike that takes out most of Pakistan's nukes, says Ajai Shukla.
Those worried say Kakrapar was lucky to have witnessed leakage of heavy and light water from the coolant channel without any serious damage to fuel bundles in the reactor.
Several nuclear power projects held up for the lack of such an insurance pool can now be expected to move forward.
Experts have said that the deal appears to be violating international guidelines forbidding nuclear exports to countries that have not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or do not have international safeguards on reactors.
The prime minister said that a larger Indian economy has multiple benefits for the world
Prime Minister Modi needs to call Biden next month and clearly say: 'Mr President, the threat from China is clear and present. We, in New Delhi, have determined it to be an urgent national priority to outfit our submarines and aircraft carriers with nuclear propulsion and we want to cooperate with America on this programme",' advises Ajai Shukla.
The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant will attain criticality by mid-night on Saturday, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman S K Sinha announced in Tirunelveli.
India had enough weapons-grade plutonium by 2014 to possess an estimated arsenal of 75 to 125 nuclear weapons, according to a prominent US-based think-tank.
R S Sundar, the site director of KNPP, on how the plant is producing 1,000 MW of nuclear power, the largest in the country.
The first unit of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, which attained criticality on July 3 will reach its maximum capacity of 1000 MWe by November end, according to S Sundar, project site director.
A lowdown on why NSG membership is important for India
India has said it is committed to implementing the highest safety standards at its nuclear power plants as it seeks to harness the benefits of atomic energy to meet its growing energy requirements.
'Many said his visit was very risky. But mercifully, Air Force One has taken off from Delhi without Mr Trump stepping on anybody's toes,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday cleared the uncertainty over the start of Kudankulam nuclear project declaring that the first unit will be operationalised in a couple of weeks but India and Russia did not sign any agreement for the third and fourth units of the plant.
'The INS Vishal -- a 65,000 tonne giant with 54 aircraft, including fighters, electronic warfare aircraft, airborne command posts and anti-submarine helicopters -- can both protect and dominate,' says Ajai Shukla.
The new Pakistan Nuclear Power Complex (PNPC), to be set up in Faisalabad, will also enrich the fuel from atomic reactors that the country plans to set up by 2030 to generate 8,800 MW of nuclear power.
Confirming this, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said, "Before the meeting started, the amendment was withdrawn."
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and French company Areva signed an agreement RPT signed an agreement for building two European Pressure Reactors at Jaitapur in Maharashtra after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
India has built two top-secret facilities in Karnataka to enrich uranium in pursuit of its hydrogen bomb dream.
Nuclear power is seeing a renaissance. Power-starved India, which has the largest number of reactors under construction, is at the forefront of this revival of interest in nuclear power.
Peres won the Nobel Peace prize in 1994 for his role negotiating peace accords with the Palestinians.
Strategic consideration were the reasons behind frequent meetings between United States President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese state-run media said on Wednesday and cautioned India that it cannot rise by "containing" China or picking one side against the other.
The US state department, which issued the revised travel advisory, on Wednesday said that the exemptions have been given under the national interest category.
National Shiv Shankar Menon asserts that all is well in the India-US relationship. Aziz Haniffa reports from Washington, DC.
'Satellite photos of Pakistan's Khushab nuclear site show what appears to be a partially completed heavy-water reactor capable of producing enough plutonium for 40 to 50 nuclear weapons a year, a 20-fold increase from its current capabilities.'
NPCIL will comply with all the 35 conditions stipulated by MoEF.
Pakistan plans to generate 8,800 mw from nuclear sources by 2030, the study says, adding the government has already formulated an energy security plan in this regard.
India's nuclear operator has started loading enriched uranium fuel in the first reactor of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project after getting the final clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) on Tuesday.
The PM chaired the AEC meeting on Saturday.
A petition has been filed in the Madras High Court against commissioning of the Kudankulam Nulcear Power Plant on the ground that authorities had not complied with all the directions issued by the Supreme Court while giving the green signal to the controversial project.
The chairman of one of India's biggest industrial groups, Larsen & Toubro Ltd sees little sign of a recovery in Asia's third-largest economy,
Ahead of Premier Li Keqiang's maiden visit to Islamabad, China on Thursday ruled out any change in bilateral ties with the new Pakistan government led by Nawaz Sharif, saying the "all weather" relationship will continue.
A 200-tonne safety vessel was successfully lowered into the reactor vault of the 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor(FBR) in Kalpakkam in a "historic moment" for the country's indigenous nuclear programme.
The NFUP smacks of an extremist version of masochism. It's tantamount to: You, there, c'mon clobber me, but if you leave me alive I'll disembowel you!
'The nuclear deal required Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to gamble the future of his government on a vision for the future of his nation.'
