Canada, one of the key members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), on Thursday said that India can order for uranium anytime and can even stockpile.
"India can place order for uranium anytime and they can also stockpile it," Gerald W Grandey, President and chief Executive Officer of Cameco Corporation of Canada (largest suppliers of uranium) told reporters on the sidelines of Homi Bhabha's Centenary celebrations' inauguration.
"We have been waiting for a long time for the Indo-US deal to come through and since IAEA India specific agreement and NSG's waiver are in place, we are keen that India buys uranium from Canada anytime," Grandey, a key person who helped in the Indo-US deal process, said.
"Now it is up to India how soon they want and how much and under what conditions," he said adding "we are ready, the decision lies with New Delhi as the customer is always right."
Grandey said, the contractual agreements are not done overnight, it takes its own time and since they had been waiting for long, they wanted India to do it fast.
Replying a query on stockpiling, Grandey said, "stockpiling is a normal thing and under the general policy, one can stockpile for one or two years. Since in Asian countries due to scarcity of supply of uranium, they can stockpile even up to three years of inventories just as Japan has done."
When asked about the price of uranium, he said if it is bought in the spot market, it would cost USD 45 per pound while when bought on a long-term contract it would be USD 70 per pound.
"However, there are varieties of contracts and depending on the relationship between the suppliers and utility (in this case NPCIL) one can fix the price favourably for future delivery," he added.
Grandey said Canada is also interested in cooperation in other parallel fuel cycle process as both India and Canada are having Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor programme.
"We are going to have great opportunity of cooperation in the coming years," he added.
Meanwhile, chief of Canadian Atomic Energy commission is expected to visit India on November six to discuss civil nuclear cooperation, said Chairman and Managing director of Nuclear Power Corporation of India, S K Jain.
Jain said, "although NPCIL can go ahead to buy uranium for the first two units of Tarapur Atomic plants and Rajasthan atomic plants, which are under separate safeguards agreement with IAEA, we will wait till the Indo-US deal is ratified by India and US."
Since NSG waiver is there, some steps can be taken immediately," he added.
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