Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced the successful completion of negotiations between Canada and India that will implement a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement, originally signed in 2010.
Premier Brad Wall is applauding the uranium deal.
Wall says the province’s uranium producers are excited about the chance to supply product to the world’s largest democracy.
All of the uranium supplied by Canada will be produced in Saskatchewan.
The president of Cameco says he’s delighted with today’s news.
Tim Gitzel believes the arrangement can be finalized as early as next year.
He says once that’s done, Cameco will have to negotiate a sales agreement with India.
Gitzel explains today’s development is something they had been anticipating in their plan to double uranium production by 2018:
“We factored India in, and India’s growth plans, and so we’ve taken this into account. But what this agreement does is it allows us to ship uranium from Canada, from Saskatchewan, directly to India — and not from other sources that we have. So that will create more jobs in northern Saskatchewan, more economic benefits for the people of northern Saskatchewan — so it’s a good deal all around.”
The uranium industry is the leading employer of Aboriginal people in Saskatchewan.
According to the provincial government, India could build up to 40 new reactors over the next two decades.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s Aurele Gervais says there are also clauses in the deal that stipulates any uranium headed to India must be used for peaceful purposes:
“And this is no different from agreements we have with other countries to which we export uranium or any kind of nuclear materials.”
Gervais adds no product will be allowed over there until the agreement is fully signed off on, which must be done by the president of the CNSC.
Canada hasn’t shipped any uranium to India since the 1970s.