If the American administrators are to be believed the deal so far could not be struck as the financial and commercials stakes were yet to be resolved. For launching its operation in India, the Westinghouse needed a commercial partner and to work out a comprehensive package that served the interest of Westinghouse and also the Indian government.

Modi and Obama during their White House meeting had 'welcomed' the start of preparatory work for six AP1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse. The AP1000 is a scaled-up version of the AP600; the latter received regulatory approval from the US authorities in 1999 but was clearly uneconomic and never found a customer. The AP1000 designed was submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2002. It was in 2011 that a final design was approved.

It is also significant that India is the first non-NPT country to sign a civil nuclear deal with Japan. Though it is said that Japan shed its long-term aversion to a deal with India in view of China's growing military presence in the region and in the disputed South China Sea the facts remains the non signing of the deal was a major stumbling block in the path of Westinghouse starting its operation in India. Nevertheless this move would primarily serve the interest of America in preserving its hegemony in the South East Asia.

Having bilateral relationship with a country is a good proposition. But overlooking and ignoring the nation’s interest simply for the sake of sustaining and promoting the relationship is always a flawed and bad strategy. It is beyond comprehension why is India so keen on importing US nuclear reactors that even the US doesn't seem to want? A report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, an independent organisation in the US, has warned that India’s plan to import 12 nuclear reactors from ailing American suppliers is financially fraught and irrelevant for India’s electricity needs. The manner in which the defence ministry under Manohar Parrikar has been doggedly pursuing the import of nuclear reactor and allowing Westinghouse, the US arm of the Japanese firm Toshiba, to set up six nuclear power plants in Andhra Pradesh is simply shocking.

If the institute's report is anything to go by, none of the 12 reactors proposed to be built by American suppliers will be competitive in terms of capital costs or electricity rates. In fact, the report even casts doubt on the relevance of the reactors as an energy source. Two India scientists, Suvrat Raju of Bengaluru and M.V. Ramana of Princeton, have calculated that whereas Westinghouse's capital costs translate into Rs. 70 crore per megawatt, indigenous Indian reactors are installed at Rs. 10 crore per megawatt, that is, 'seven times lower' than Westinghouse. Such dauntingly high capital costs, they argue, would render Westinghouse's first year tariffs at Rs. 25 per unit of electricity as against Rs. 4 from coal and Rs. 5 for solar power.

At a time while the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is wooing Westinghouse for a nuclear park in his home state, Toshiba is reportedly under investigation in the US for financial irregularities arising from its subsidiary’s losses. Westinghouse’s losses have dragged its parent Toshiba into a massive controversy. The Japanese conglomerate admitted last November that Westinghouse had incurred massive losses owing to delays in new plant constructions and cost overruns in the years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The deal that the Indian government is stitching up will benefit more the US supplier than to protect India’s consumers or taxpayers. The report suggests that unless the projects are heavily subsidised by taxpayers, electricity from the reactors proposed at Kovvada and Mithi Virdi will be too expensive. It is also presumed that the new reactors will take 11 to 15 years to build, assuming the projects manage to avoid likely delays. Electricity from the new reactors could be expected between 2029 and 2032; assuming construction starts in 2017.

Further, the Westinghouse is keen to have a strong working relation with China, but recent developments underline that China is not willing to lay the red carpet for the Americans. The reason according to Li Ning, a nuclear-industry expert at China’s Xiamen University is, “Westinghouse oversold the AP1000, oversold the technology, promised more than they could really deliver.” In October 2013, U.S. energy secretary Ernest Moniz had said that China would supply components to Westinghouse’s two U.S. power plant projects – a perfect “Chinese takeaway” of the key US nuclear energy know-how. In this backdrop question arises what is the safety quotient of the technological knowhow supplied to India?

The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2015 provides a comprehensive overview of nuclear power plant data which points to a decline. India lists six units as under construction with a total of 3.9 GW. Most operating reactors experienced significant construction delays, and operational targets have rarely been achieved.

India wants to increase its nuclear capacity to 63,000 MW by 2032 to meet growing demand and restrict its reliance on fossil fuels, and has struck a series of accords with other countries to help meet that goal. After his meeting with Obama in Washington, Modi on his own, without consulting experts and without the concurrence of his cabinet, splurged over Rs. 4,00,000 crore ($21 billion) on six AP1000 Westinghouse nuclear reactors. There was no tender. There was no open bidding. Worse, Westinghouse was assured they would be indemnified in the event of a nuclear accident under an international legal commitment, the Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC). India acceded to CSC in February 2016, even as preparations were on for Modi's trip to Washington, notwithstanding the obvious contradictions between the CSC and India's own domestic legislation, the Limited Liability Act passed on Dr. Manmohan Singh's watch during the UPA-II government.

This apparently was in exchange for Obama reiterating his support for India's bid to secure entry to the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG). Astonishingly, how could the government forget the fact that the USA president George W. Bush had assured Manmohan Singh that the US would pull out all diplomatic and not-so-diplomatic stops to get India NSG membership. There was nothing new in Obama’s assurance.

Interestingly while India is running after the US company, America has turned sceptical of Pakistan’s Shaheen-III, which has a range of 2,750 km. Pakistan has officially explained its longest-range missile to date, tested for the first time in 2015, as a capability to strike the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the farthest Indian territory from its shores. If Pakistan can deliver on its own , why should India look towards West?

In December 2015 Toshiba’s American arm, Westinghouse Electric, bought a nuclear-construction firm, CB&I Stone & Webster. One year on, on December 27, Toshiba announced that cost overruns at that new unit could lead to several billions of dollars in charges against profits. Its shares fell by 42% in a three-day stretch as investors dumped them. Moody’s and S&P, two ratings agencies, announced credit downgrades and threatened more. It is clear that missing construction deadlines on nuclear-power plants can send costs skyrocketing. Its projects in America, and in China, are years behind schedule. (IPA Service)