The Anil Ambani group flagship company, Reliance Energy, is negotiating with GE, Westinghouse and Areva to partner its foray into nuclear power generation.

REL is looking at setting up two 1000 mw nuclear power plants in the country once the fuel availability is assured, sources close to the development said.

The company, which has set up a separate nuclear power initiative to spearhead the move, is said to be waiting for the final nod from the US for the Indo-US nuclear deal before inking the final agreement with these partners. Company executives were, however, not available for comment.

All the three companies - Westinghouse, GE and Areva - have technologies for setting up large scale nuclear power plants of over 600 mw. Indian indigenous technology stretches to a maximum of 500 mw.

The nuclear power intiative is expected to be spun off into a separate company at a later date. REL is already putting together a team of 200 engineers for the nuclear foray. The company is also talking to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India for a possible joint venture, sources said.

India generates 3,900 mw of nuclear power, which constitutes 3 per cent of the total power generated in India. The country is expected to have 20,000 mw of nuclear power by 2015 and 40,000 mw by 2020.