US firm Westinghouse Electric and the NPCIL on Wednesday signed a preliminary pact for an Early Works Agreement (EWA) for installation of the first 1,000 MW American nuclear reactor in India under the historic 2008 Indo-US civil nuclear deal.

The announcement of the signing of the MoU, which represents a significant milestone towards the realisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal, coincided with the third Indo-US strategic dialogue headed by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and external affairs minister S.M. Krishna.