What is 123 Agreement

What is 123 Agreement: The 123 agreement refers to the inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) on civil nuclear cooperation between India & the USA. One of the aspects of the agreement was possibility of setting up large capacity nuclear power reactors in cooperation with US companies. In this regard, the government had accorded in-principle approval for the sites at Chhaya Mithi Virdi in Gujarat and Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh for setting up six reactors at each site in cooperation with the USA. Presently, pre-project activities like land acquisition, site investigations for obtaining statutory and regulatory clearances etc. are in progress at these sites. Discussions between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and General Electric Hitachi Nuclear Energy International (GEH) & Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC) of the USA are in progress to arrive at project proposals for the Chhaya Mithi Virdi and Kovvada Sites respectively. A preliminary contract has also been signed in September, 2013 between NPCIL and WEC for technical feasibility studies.
The expenditure at these two sites has largely been incurred by NPCIL on the technology independent activities like site investigation, preparations for environment and regulatory clearances, public awareness etc. The cumulative expenditure (as of June 2014) has been ` 31.81 crore in ChhayaMithiVirdi&`14.78 Crore in Kovvada projects. At present, setting up of nuclear power reactors with US cooperation at Chhaya Mithi Virdi in Gujarat and Kovvadain Andhra Pradesh, only are planned.