One big multinational is almost certain to be out of the race for nuclear energy business in India. On Wednesday I had met John Flannery, outgoing President and Chief Executive Officer of GE in India for a chat before he left for his new assignment: finding targets for the company to buy. Flannery said GE will rather give up business than play within India’s civil nuclear liability rules.

“If the [civil nuclear] liability law stays the way it is, we won’t pursue the business.”

Flannery knows other companies, French and Russian, are nosing ahead in the race but points out that they are backed by the government.  He is very clear about his own: “We are a private enterprise and we just can’t take that kind of risk profiles.”

Last week, on his maiden visit to India as French President, Fracois Hollande had said that his country was okay with Indian laws. “Regarding civil nuclear liability, we obviously respect Indian law. It is the sovereign decision of a country that has witnessed catastrophes like the Bhopal gas tragedy,” Holande had told an interviewer from the Times of India February 14.

France’s Areva wants to supply nuclear reactors and fuel to India’s Nuclear Power Corporation which is planning to add about 37500 MW generation capacity. The contracts could be worth billions of dollars. Many of the units that the corporation plans to build such as at Jaitapur in Maharashtra are large ones with a capacity of 1000 MW and above. Areva also has an advantage here because it is also building similar sized reactors at home.

The world has been thinking deeply since March 11, 2011, whether nuclear plants are worth the risk………

– See more at: http://forbesindia.com/blog/business-strategy/ge-will-not-chase-nuke-business-if-laws-dont-change/#sthash.frMlRDjt.dpuf

H/t Sue and Anne