French nuclear giant Areva signed a preliminary deal Wednesday to provide India with up to six new-generation nuclear reactors, Associated Press reported. The Paris-based company says the deal signed with Indian electric utility Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. will pave the way for technical cooperation on at least two and as many as six of Areva's so-called EPRs, or Evolutionary Power Reactors, at the Jaitapur site in the western state of Maharashtra. Areva's statement didn't provide the estimated value of the deal. India requires a «huge addition in power generation» to meet its growing demand, Areva said. NPCIL already has five reactors under construction, which will increase its electricity generating capacity by 2,660 megawatts, from 4,120 megawatts currently. It operates all of India's 17 existing nuclear reactors. Last year, an executive at Areva' rival General Electric Co. estimated the size of India's nuclear market at more than $30 billion. Today, India gets just 3 percent of its energy_about 4,100 megawatts_ from nuclear power. By 2032 the government plans to quadruple total generating capacity, to 700 gigawatts, with nuclear accounting for 63,000 megawatts. That adds up to about 40 new nuclear reactors, worth some $80 billion, according to NPCIL chairman Shreyans Kumar Jain. Besides GE, Areva competes with Westinghouse Electric Co. and Russia's Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corp. to build new reactors in India. Rosatom is already helping India build two nuclear reactors.
