Future reactors may come under IAEA scanner

march 7th

more of the small print that the rah-rah boosters don't get.

it's not CYRUS btw, it's CIRUS. and it's not k subrahmanyam, defense analyst, it's k subrahmanya a journalist.

still, more nails in the coffin of the fast breeder and of national security. bush in his asia society speech clearly demoted india to a supplicant, not an advanced nuclear state. there have been enough indications that the yanks have no indication of helping india, all the fuss being made is of the order of "those third-world indians, how dare they even ask for a pittance when the Great White Father is offering to protect them in return for them disarming themselves"?

reminds one mightily of how the native americans (also known as indians) were hoodwinked by the white guys, impoverished, their lands stolen, ethnically cleansed, exterminated, and so forth with grossly one-sided treaties.

new century, new bunch of indians being screwed.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: S
Date: Mar 6, 2006 2:03 PM
Subject: Future reactors may come under IAEA scanner
To: rajeev.srinivasan@gmail.com


From K Subrahmanya DH News Service New Delhi:

The understanding on closure of CYRUS over the next five years is apparently intended to remove a major irritant in Indo-US nuclear relationship that would also help Mr Bush to get the deal through the US Congress.


All future fast breeder reactors that India may build in future may be put under IAEA safeguards, though New Delhi would undertake to do so "voluntarily".

This and a decision on decommissioning the CYRUS research reactor at Bhabha Atomic Research Reactor (BARC) are understood to have been agreed last Thursday when US President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh clinched a deal on India's civil/military nuclear Separation Plan. The deal paved the way forward for implementation of the last July's Indo-US civil nuclear energy cooperation agreement.

The Manmohan Singh government is yet to divulge details of the Separation Plan and it has done so on the ground that it must be done in Parliament since the budget session is in progress.

Top government officials have maintained that decisions on placing under IAEA safeguards all indigenously built future reactors, including fast breeders, would be taken by India and that such decisions would not be an issue of debate with the US. But informally, the understanding with the US is believed to have been reached that future fast breeders would be brought under safeguards.

Eminent sense

That would, however, make eminent sense since without placing fast breeders under safeguards India would not be able to divert spent fuel from the safeguarded reactors as part of the fuel to be loaded on fast breeders.

India has bargained to keep as many as eight of the existing indigenously built or under-construction reactors with a view to provide for spent fuel for the proto-type fast breeder reactor under construction at Kalpakkam. It is not yet clear if the US would agree to allow India to reprocess the spent fuel from the safeguarded reactors for future fast breeder reactors.

Going by Mr Bush's Asia Society speech on the eve of his visit here last week, the US may have reservations over allowing India to reprocess spent fuel.

Mr Bush had not identified India among the supplier states for reprocessed fuel under his Global Nuclear Energy Partnership initiative for future.

The implication is the US treated India as a recipient country and not a supplier country. Mr Bush's GNEP initiative seeks to address future energy requirements of countries across the world in a way that would also address the non-proliferation concerns.

Closure of CYRUS

The understanding on closure of CYRUS over the next five years is apparently intended to remove a major irritant in Indo-US nuclear relationship that would also help Mr Bush to get the deal through the US Congress. Non-proliferation hawks in the US have targeted the CYRUS reactor to question the rationale of reviving Indo-US nuclear cooperation.

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/mar72006/index21820200636.asp


-
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from Indiatimes at http://infinite.indiatimes.com

Buy The Best In BOOKS at http://www.bestsellers.indiatimes.com

Bid for for Air Tickets @ Re.1 on Air Sahara Flights. Just log on to http://airsa hara.indiatimes.com and Bid Now!