Lightbridge Corporation (LTBR)

[User-65225]

Things are going to get very interesting here IMO.... This PR is from 2006...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aDmYfnErYrOs

Thorium Power Says Plans Joint Ventures With Indian Companies

By Manash Goswami and Archana Chaudhary

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Thorium Power Ltd., a U.S.-based builder of nuclear fuel technology, said it's in talks to set up joint ventures with Nuclear Power Corp. of India and NTPC Ltd. for business in the Asian nation.

India has the potential to build at least 60 reactors of 1,000 megawatts each, Thorium's President Seth Grae said in an interview in New Delhi today. Grae is part of a delegation to seek business after the Senate voted to support a Bush administration plan to sell nuclear technology and fuel to India.

India is planning to spend as much as $40 billion over the next 16 years to buy nuclear reactors from suppliers such as France's Areva SA, Electricite de France and U.S.-based General Electric Co. and Westinghouse Electric Co., Nuclear Power's Chairman S.K. Jain said in an earlier interview on May 16.

``We will be looking at business of several millions of dollars per year from India because the potential in the country is huge,' Grae said. ``If India chooses to build its reactors on thorium, we expect to get a sizeable chunk of the business.'

Grae is meeting Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Prithviraj Chavan, minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office during his visit.

Senate Vote

The Senate on Nov. 16 voted to support a Bush administration plan to sell nuclear technology and fuel to India. By a vote of 85-12, the Senate affirmed that U.S. companies would be allowed to sell their wares to India's civil atomic power program. In exchange, the south Asian country is supposed to open some of its plants to international inspections to prove that the fuel won't be diverted for weapons.

India is turning to overseas nuclear-reactor builders after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh doubled the nation's 2020 capacity target from an initial 20,000 megawatts. India's homegrown atomic power program, initially based on Russian technology, won't cope with the stepped-up construction plan, Jain said.

The program was also limited because of a uranium shortage caused by the international embargo on sales of the reactor fuel. Once sanctions end, supplies of enriched uranium will be included in contracts to install reactors, Jain said.

The sanctions were prompted by India's testing of a nuclear weapon in 1974. The explosion conducted in a desert in western India prompted the formation of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, of which the U.S. is also a member. Another round of tests by India in 1998 led to the U.S. choking trade with India by disallowing the Export-Import Bank and Overseas Private Investment Corp. to guarantee loans for projects in India.

``Thorium Power claim that they have expertise and they can give designs of many reactors,' Jain said in a telephone interview today. ``The term I would use is preliminary exploratory discussions.'

To contact the reporter on this story: Manash Goswami in New Delhi at [e-mail] ; Archana Chaudhary in Mumbai at [e-mail] .
Last Updated: December 5, 2006 07:40 EST