VZCZCXRO6933
OO RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHNE #0173/01 0281411
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 281411Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5210
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHTA/AMEMBASSY ASTANA 1023
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1441
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 3072
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 0786
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1483
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 6071
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 1732
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 7559

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NEW DELHI 000173 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS TO NRC 
DEPT OF ENERGY FOR PDAS SHANE JOHNSON 
DEPT OF ENERGY FOR RBOUDREAU, TCUTLER, MGILLESPIE 
USDOC FOR SARAH LOPP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ENRG TRGY PREL PARM TSPL KNNP EINV BEXP KIPR
IN, FR 
SUBJECT: FRANCE NEEDS CIVIL NUCLEAR LIABILITY CONVENTION, 
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION 
 
REF: NEW DELHI 152 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  The French public multinational civil 
nuclear firm Areva shares many of the same requirements for 
doing business in India as U.S. private sector firms, 
including a civil nuclear liability regime consistent with 
the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear 
Damage and intellectual property protection in the civil 
nuclear sector, according to the French Embassy in New Delhi 
January 23.  The French Minister of External Trade will sign 
a memorandum of understanding during a visit to India the 
first week in February to set up two reactors at the nuclear 
reactor park site in Jaitapur, Maharashtra.  The French 
contract to sell uranium to India is a "one-shot deal" of 300 
tons for reactors that are already under IAEA safeguards, as 
compared to India's "quite huge" deal with Kazakhstan to 
purchase an estimated 1,000-2,000 tons.  India's civil 
nuclear goal of installing 63,000 Megawatts (MWe) of 
generating capacity by the year 2032 may be based on France's 
own 63,000 MWe of nuclear generating capacity that it 
achieved in about 20 years.  END SUMMARY. 
 
France Also Needs Liability and IPR Protection 
- - - 
 
¶2. (SBU) Counselor for Energy and New Technologies at the 
French Embassy in New Delhi, Hugues de Longevialle, told 
Poloff January 23 that although the French government was a 
majority share-holder in the civil nuclear firm Areva, it 
nevertheless had many of the same commercial concerns about 
doing business in India as U.S. private sector firms.  De 
Longevialle said categorically, "France and Areva need the 
liability Convention implemented to do business in India." 
France's bilateral civil nuclear framework agreement with 
India contains the "specific requirement" that India have a 
liability regime in force "compatible with international 
principles."  De Longevialle inquired why U.S. firms 
specifically require the Convention on Supplementary 
Compensation, since it is not yet in force, but understood 
that U.S. firms recognized it as the global standard and 
would be hard pressed to accept anything less.  He said Areva 
likewise would like to see the Convention itself implemented, 
adding that if the Indian government were to submit a law to 
Parliament not fully consistent with the Convention it would 
be "a concern" to France.  De Longevialle shared that the 
French Minister of External Trade will press home this point 
during his visit India the first week of February.  (COMMENT: 
France's Areva has a substantial presence in the United 
States and may have an interest in India ratifying the 
Convention in part out of concern that its U.S. subsidiary 
could be sued for an incident in India. END COMMENT.) 
 
¶3. (SBU) De Longevialle added that intellectual property 
right guarantees were "as important" as liability protection 
for French industry.  Responding to Department of Atomic 
Energy Chairman Anil Kakodkar's comments to the visiting 
U.S.-India Business Council civil nuclear trade mission 
(reftel), de Longevialle said contractual arrangements 
between commercial partners did not protect foreign firms 
from intellectual property right infringements by the Indian 
government.  "We have exactly the same concern as you," de 
Longevialle concluded. 
 
French Have Jaitapur Site, One-time Uranium Contract 
- - - 
 
¶4. (SBU) De Longevialle confirmed rumors that India has 
informally promised to France the nuclear reactor park site 
 
NEW DELHI 00000173  002 OF 002 
 
 
at Jaitapur, Maharashtra, confirming media statements by 
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) Chairman 
S.K. Jain that the French Minister of External Trade will 
sign a memorandum of understanding the first week in February 
to set up two reactors at the site.  De Longevialle explained 
that India offered that site to France informally during 
technical talks on reactor park sight selection several years 
ago, and that the promise had stuck.  De Longevialle agreed 
that the process of reactor park site designation was highly 
political, and that he did not expect India to announce new 
sites until after the next general elections due by April. 
In any case, he said France would have its hands full with 
one site for the foreseeable future and would not be 
interested in additional sites for some time. 
 
¶5. (SBU) India's uranium-purchasing deal with Kazakhstan's 
KazAtomProm inked during the January 26 visit of Kazakhstan 
President Nazarbayev is "quite huge," according to De 
Longevialle, estimating it at 1,000-2,000 tons of uranium 
over several years.  In contrast, he characterized the French 
contract as a "one-shot deal," a stop-gap measure of 300 tons 
of uranium for reactors already under IAEA safeguards. 
Kazakhstan has the second highest uranium reserves in the 
world, after Australia, but it is the third highest producer, 
after Canada and Australia.  He speculated that the sharing 
of Indian extraction and fabrication technology and expertise 
may be a component of the Kazakhstan deal.  (Further details 
on Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev's January 26 Republic Day 
visit will be reported Septel.) 
 
Different Approaches to Implementation 
- - - 
 
¶6. (SBU) De Longevialle wondered aloud about the extent to 
which the U.S. will run into difficulties implementing the 
123 Agreement's requirements for the reprocessing arrangement 
in Section 6(3) and the administrative arrangement to track 
nuclear materials in Section 17.  He said France will take 
the IAEA safeguards to be sufficient without additional 
conditionalities on fuel supply or reprocessing.  He also 
cautioned against seeking collaboration with India on nuclear 
material safety that went beyond existing IAEA accident 
prevention and response programs, advising that new ad hoc 
efforts under the rubric of counter-terrorism cooperation 
would be viewed by India as "particularly sensitive and 
perhaps inappropriate." 
 
Indian Ambitions on Par With French Scale 
- - - 
 
¶7. (SBU) India's civil nuclear goals are ambitious, but 
"achievable," according to De Longevialle, who observed that 
India's goals bear an uncanny resemblance to France's nuclear 
capabilities.  India's official goal is 63,000 MWe by the 
year 2032, i.e. within 25 years of its 2007 Nuclear Suppliers 
Group exception.  This figure corresponds with France's 
generating capacity of approximately 63,000 MWe from 58 
units, which France achieved in about 20 years. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Local Russian representatives have been 
characteristically silent about their requirements and 
commercial hopes.  Canada is reportedly close to signing a 
nuclear cooperation agreement and has exchanged a draft 
agreement with the Indian government. 
 
 
MULFORD