IAEA briefing tomorrow

New Delhi/Bangalore: Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon will brief the IAEA board and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) countries on the proposed India-specific safeguards pact and other aspects of the India-US civil nuclear deal in Vienna tomorrow.

An Indian team comprising senior officials of the external affairs ministry and the department of atomic energy headed by Menon is to leave for Vienna today evening for the crucial briefing aimed at garnering support for the nuclear deal, an official source told IANS.

Nuclear plants planned

India plans to build eight 700-MW nuclear plants to boost its nuclear power generation capacity to about 10,000 MW and is stepping up exploration to uncover uranium mines, a top Atomic Energy Commission official said. At present India has a nuclear power generation capacity of 4,000 MW but its nuclear reactors are facing a crunch in uranium, which is used as fuels for power generation.