South Korea keen on setting up nuclear power plant in India

New Delhi: Keen to enter India`s growing nuclear market, South Korea wants to build an atomic power plant here but India is not rushing into it.

The government first wants to complete the projects already initiated, including Koodankulam III and IV and Jaitapur, which are facing hurdles on various counts. However, India is willing to have cooperation with South Korea in other aspects of the nuclear field, like research. South Korea conveyed its desire to build a nuclear plant in India when a delegation from its Ministry of Science came here recently, sources told a news agency. This was preceded by a visit of a team of Department of Atomic Energy to South Korea to discuss cooperation in the nuclear field in November last year. Sources said India not very keen to have Korean nuclear reactors immediately. The DAE first wants to concentrate on existing plants and deal with the issues like liability over which many foreign collaborators have raised questions. "We would first want to clear the impediments for projects that are already in pipeline and then move on to another projects," said a senior DAE official. Currently, all the power plants are running behind schedule. The Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant Project (JNPP) being built with French assistance, the unit 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) with Russian assistance and the Mithi Virdhi nuclear plant with the assistance of the US are either stuck because of various reasons or running behind schedule.