ABU DHABI (Sputnik) — India will launch a second nuclear-powered submarine by the end of this year or the beginning of 2018, Sekhar Basu, the secretary of the country's Department of Atomic Energy, told Sputnik.
"A nuclear-powered submarine, the second one, will take some time [to launch]. This year, maybe early next year," Basu said Tuesday on the sidelines of the nuclear conference in Abu Dhabi organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
INS Arihant, the first Indian nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, was first revealed in 2009 and commissioned in 2016. The Indian Navy has another nuclear-powered submarine in active service, the Russian-built INS Chakra, leased to India for 10 years.
On Reactor Deal With Westinghouse
According to Sekhar Basu, India intends to continue talks on the nuclear reactor deal with Westinghouse Electric Corporation, once the US-based company has overcome its financial difficulties.
"Everybody has some problems, every company has some problem or other, once it is sorted then we will start," Basu said on Tuesday.
The company was also discussing the project with Russia's Rosatom, as well as France's EDF with no contract finalized as yet, he added.
Most recently, Westinghouse Vice President Krish Rajan said that the company was expecting to be out of bankruptcy by early 2018 and that the bankruptcy filing was unlikely to impact the project in India.
