India to finalise uranium deal with Australia during Tony Abbot's visit

NEW DELHI: While the government is still negotiating to narrow differences to clinch a civil nuclear deal with Japan, the big ticket item during the visit of Australian premier Tony Abbott to India on September 4-5 would be a landmark deal for supply of much needed uranium for India’s nuclear reactors.

Negotiations for the nuclear deal with Canberra have been among least troublesome for New Delhi. The culmination of these negotiations is expected to result in the historic deal during Abbott’s visit, official sources said. Abbott will be the first PM that the Modi government will host for a standalone bilateral visit. Earlier Prime Ministers and Presidents of SAARC nations were in Delhi for the swearing in ceremony.

The negotiations between the two sides have been on since 2012, after Labor Party reversed its decision to ban uranium sale to India as New Delhi has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Abbott’s Conservative Party, however, had long favoured selling uranium to India. A deal will make India the first non-NPT signatory to receive the yellow cake from Australia. India that currently has 20 reactors hopes to increase its nuclear capacity to 63,000 MW by 2032 by adding nearly 30 reactors.

Australia has the world’s highest (31%) recoverable uranium resources. It is world’s third-largest producer of uranium after Kazakhstan and India. Ahead of anticipated deal uranium rich states of Australia have explored offering mining licenses to Indian firms.

Queensland has a significant uranium potential, estimated at 165.95 MT with a total uranium oxide content of 107,000 tonnes. Talking to ET, Parag Shirname, Trade Commissioner of Queensland in South Asia, said that his province was ready to cut down on any bureaucratic and environmental hurdles for supply for uranium to India.