A recent BusinessWeek Online article describes how India needs nuclear energy to keep up its rapid expansion, and Bush wants to help provide it -- but he faces some hurdles there and at home.
If there is one thing that could trip up India's rapid economic ascendancy, it is a paralyzing energy crunch. To avoid that fate, the country desperately needs a major build-out of its nuclear reactor capacity (it kicks in only 3% of India's energy needs now), and that means access to international uranium supplies and reactor technology.
Indian power companies, not to mention global nuclear-reactor builders and suppliers, see vast potential. Yet it all hinges on a critical and highly contentious U.S.-India nuclear deal getting nailed down in Washington.
A possible breakthrough came on July 27, when the U.S. House of Representatives approved a U.S.-India nuclear pact under which the U.S. will provide India with fuel and reactor technology for its civilian nuclear program in return for extra safeguards imposed on India's nuclear weapons activities. This represents a significant win for India as it would get access to nuclear fuel supplies despite that New Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
WIN-WIN SITUATION. The Bush Administration has pushed mightily for legislative approval of the deal, arguing that India deserves special treatment given its solid track record in not spreading nuclear weapons technology. A largely unspoken incentive, of course, is the huge commercial potential for U.S. companies such as General Electric (GE), nuclear fuel supplier US Enrichment (USU), and contractors and material suppliers such as Bechtel, Lockheed, (LMT) and Boeing (BA).
An estimated $60 billion in reactor and related supply contracts could be up for grabs in the coming decades if India's nuclear power industry gets access to international fuel supplies, investment, and expertise . . . .
If there is one thing that could trip up India's rapid economic ascendancy, it is a paralyzing energy crunch. To avoid that fate, the country desperately needs a major build-out of its nuclear reactor capacity (it kicks in only 3% of India's energy needs now), and that means access to international uranium supplies and reactor technology.
Indian power companies, not to mention global nuclear-reactor builders and suppliers, see vast potential. Yet it all hinges on a critical and highly contentious U.S.-India nuclear deal getting nailed down in Washington.
A possible breakthrough came on July 27, when the U.S. House of Representatives approved a U.S.-India nuclear pact under which the U.S. will provide India with fuel and reactor technology for its civilian nuclear program in return for extra safeguards imposed on India's nuclear weapons activities. This represents a significant win for India as it would get access to nuclear fuel supplies despite that New Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
WIN-WIN SITUATION. The Bush Administration has pushed mightily for legislative approval of the deal, arguing that India deserves special treatment given its solid track record in not spreading nuclear weapons technology. A largely unspoken incentive, of course, is the huge commercial potential for U.S. companies such as General Electric (GE), nuclear fuel supplier US Enrichment (USU), and contractors and material suppliers such as Bechtel, Lockheed, (LMT) and Boeing (BA).
An estimated $60 billion in reactor and related supply contracts could be up for grabs in the coming decades if India's nuclear power industry gets access to international fuel supplies, investment, and expertise . . . .
