THE plan for the separation of India’s civilian and military nuclear facilities under the July 18, 2005, Indo-US deal, as presented to Parliament by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, allays the concerns voiced by the scientific and strategic communities. The commitments made by the government do not compromise India’s strategic interests. India’s nuclear deterrent capability remains beyond the purview of the nuclear deal, which has begun to be given a practical shape after US President George W. Bush’s visit to New Delhi. India’s 14 of the 22 thermal power reactors will come under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards by 2014. This means that 65 per cent of the total nuclear energy generation will be covered by the safeguards regime, but actually India will be adding only 46 per cent more, as 19 per cent of these were already under such an arrangement.
It must be appreciated that the Prime Minister has tried to ensure at every stage that the concerns expressed by our scientists are taken into consideration. The scientists did not want any outside interference under any circumstances in the key nuclear installations like the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Hence the decision to shut down the outdated CIRUS research reactors and shift the APSARA reactors to a new location till 2010. Both have been functioning at the premises of the Bhabha Centre. The Americans have been told in unambiguous terms that India cannot accept any inspection regime for its Fast Breeder Reactor programme.
No government can afford to jeopardise the country’s strategic interests, whatever the compulsions. That is why the Prime Minister has made it clear that which nuclear facilities are included in the civilian list will be India’s prerogative, not only today but tomorrow also. Happily, the Americans have acceded to this key demand, as Dr Manmohan Singh pointed out in Parliament. There is no loophole left to threaten an uninterrupted fuel supply to the civilian nuclear reactors. In case of an unforeseen development with regard to fuel supply, the US and India will together approach friendly nuclear supplier countries like Russia and France to tackle the problem urgently. This was imperative in view of the experience in the case of the Tarapur facility. India has nothing to worry about. Now it is for the Bush administration to push through the required legislation in the Congress and also make other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group fall in line.
