WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 -- The equation haunting India's nuclear ambitions for two decades is both simple and unresolved: a country of 1.4 billion people needs electricity at a scale that coal alone can no longer provide, and the civilian nuclear framework that was supposed to unlock American reactor technology is still, in 2026, producing consultations rather than construction.

Senior officials from India's Department of Atomic Energy and the US Department of Energy met in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday for what diplomatic sources described as the most substantive technical exchanges in the bilateral nuclear relationship since the 123 Agreement was signed in 2008. The agenda covered reactor siting, technology transfer protocols, and, ...