Hope PM Modi, President Biden agree on nuclear compact for enhanced cooperation in energy sector: Holtec International CEO

Camden: A leading Indian-American executive has expressed hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden would agree on a nuclear compact that will enhance bilateral cooperation on nuclear and solar technology that will help meet India's growing energy requirements and address pollution challenges.

The remarks by Kris Singh, Executive Chairman and CEO of Holtec International, came ahead of Prime Minister Modi's first Official State Visit to the US next week.

“We have developed here a small nuclear reactor and we are now ready to sell it commercially. My hope is that we will provide this reactor in significant quantities in India. That will change the landscape. I get excited when I talk about it because it really is a phenomenal solution,” Singh told PTI in an exclusive interview at the sprawling Krishna P Singh Technology Campus here.

Holtec International is a diversified energy technology company recognized as the leading technology innovator in the field of carbon-free power generation, specifically commercial nuclear and solar energy.

Singh underlined the potential for enhanced collaboration between India and the US in the energy sector, particularly nuclear technology that can help the world’s most populous country meet its energy requirements while at the same time addressing challenges of pollution in its cities and towns and ensuring clean air for its citizens.

Singh, who is a prolific inventor and has 170 patents granted in the US as well as a large number overseas, with many patents pending, said he developed the small nuclear reactor 10-12 years ago.

“We have developed the technology to use solar energy along with nuclear plants to produce more power than solar alone could do,” underlining that this is a “comprehensive solution.” Singh noted that while all power plants need water to run, his company’s reactor will run on air.

“If you have to produce power in the middle of Rajasthan, where there is very little water, you can use this reactor. It produces power but no pollution. That’s what we need across the country,” Singh said.

Singh emphasised that India has “a wonderful gift of the sun” and noted that Prime Minister Modi has called for ‘One Sun, One World, One Grid' to improve the viability of solar power.

"India is well-endowed with much solar energy,” he said adding that he is hoping that Prime Minister Modi “works out a nuclear compact with the US so it becomes possible for us to provide the technology to India.”

He noted that right now he cannot do this since restrictions on nuclear technology are “very very strict. There is so much that can be done using nuclear and solar to decongest the environment in India.”

Singh emphasised that as India undertook its phenomenal development journey over the years, the environment deteriorated and there is an urgent need to clean up the country’s air. This would entail switching to two clean energy sources there are - nuclear and solar.

Singh stressed that due to restrictions under the 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 810, companies like his are prohibited from using any Indian engineers to work on reactor development in the US.

“We cannot do agreements to build plants there” and “My ambition is to build 100 of the Small Modular Reactors (SMR-160) in the next 15 years. I can't build one without the agreement,” he said as he expressed hope that Prime Minister Modi and President Biden would arrive at an agreement that will authorise India under Part 810.

He said this does not require Congress' approval and the US President and his administration can do it.

“It is inhibiting trade between India and US. We can be the agent to further strengthen the relationship between India and US,” he said.

Singh, who came to America from India almost 55 years ago, established Holtec International in 1986 and built it into a multi-national company that has a business footprint globally on five continents.

Singh built the USD 312 million Krishna P. Singh Technology Campus, a sprawling manufacturing facility, on the Delaware River in Camden, New Jersey in 2017 with the aim to create employment and economic growth in the area.

The technology campus occupies approximately 50 acres of land on the left bank of the Delaware River in south Camden where the famed New York Shipyard (now a major cargo port operated by the South Jersey Port Authority) once stood. In establishing the Krishna P Singh Technology Campus, Holtec International sought to recapture South Jersey’s “faded glory as a bastion of manufacturing and, in a larger measure, to help resuscitate America’s shrunken base of heavy manufacturing,” the company says on its website.

The campus consists of two large manufacturing plants, a seven-story corporate engineering centre, a system test facility (without nuclear fuel), and support installations like a training centre, a non-destructive testing laboratory, and corporate apartments.

Lauding India’s economic rise and potential to be among the world’s top three economies in the near future, Singh said he is “confident it will be a wonderful time” for India.

He said eliminating poverty, which India is doing remarkably well, has to be the “number one objective”.

Singh emphasised that skills training for the country’s large young population is absolutely essential. “For the size of the country, it does not have the skilled labour pool” and if young people are not trained, they're not productive and become a “burden".

“India has a great opportunity right now because its population is a young population. Train people, put them to work,” he said.

Singh underscored that US policy towards India is different today than it was in the 1970s. “It's a new day. And I think that people in America look at India as a friend. We should build on that."