India will look for opportunities of owning uranium mining assets overseas, apart from considering long-term supply contracts, according to Dr R.K. Sinha, Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

This assumes significance in the wake of the recent assurance by the Australian Prime Minister to seek to revoke the ban on sales of uranium. Australia has the world's biggest reserves of uranium.

Earlier, India had considered buying or exploring joint venture route to uranium assets in Africa, though it did not make much headway.

“I cannot say anything specific about Australia. But India has opportunities to own (uranium) assets overseas, as also tying up long-term contract with suppliers to meet our nuclear energy programme,” Dr Sinha said.

He refused to give any time frame for such a deal to materialise, but reiterated that “this (owning overseas uranium assets) is certainly on our agenda.”

Addressing media persons on the sidelines of the annual conference of the Indian Nuclear Society, Dr Srikumar Banerjee, Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, sought to allay fears on any risk factors involving the 2,000 MW Kudankulam nuclear power project.

He said all major areas of concern such as background radiation threat, earthquake or tsunami threats and decay heat management have been taken care off. A 15-member expert committee, comprising exports from diverse fields such as radiation, seismologists, radiation oncology and fisheries, had gone into every aspect of risks related to the project.

He was confident that the stalemate will be resolved soon.

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