India-US Nuclear Deal Important Features
The Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement is the name commonly attributed to a bilateral agreement on nuclear cooperation between the United States of America and the Republic of India.
The framework for this agreement was a Joint Statement by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. P
resident George W. Bush, under which India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and place civil facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and, in exchange, the United States agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India.
Following are the key aspects of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal:
* The agreement not to hinder or interfere with India’s nuclear programme for military purposes.
* US will help India negotiate with the IAEA for an India-specific fuel supply agreement.
* Washington will support New Delhi develop strategic reserves of nuclear fuel to guard against future disruption of supply.
* In case of disruption, US and India will jointly convene a group of friendly supplier countries to include nations like Russia, France and the UK to pursue such measures to restore fuel supply.
* Both the countries agree to facilitate nuclear trade between themselves in the interest of respective industries and consumers.
* India and the US agree to transfer nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment and components.
* Any special fissionable material transferred under the agreement shall be low enriched uranium.
* Low enriched uranium can be transfered for use as fuel in reactor experiments and in reactors for conversion or fabrication.
* The ambit of the deal include research, development, design, construction, operation, maintenance and use of nuclear reactors, reactor experiments and decommissioning.
* The US will have the right to seek return of nuclear fuel and technology but it will compensate for the costs incurred as a consequence of such removal.
* India can develop strategic reserve of nuclear fuel to guard against any disruption of supply over the lifetime of its reactors.
* Agreement provides for consultations on the circumstances, including changed security environment, before termination of the nuclear cooperation.
* Provision for one-year notice period before termination of the agreement.
* The US to engage Nuclear Suppliers Group to help India obtain full access to the international fuel market, including reliable, uninteruppted and continual access to fuel supplies from firms in several nations.
* The US will have the right to seek return of nuclear fuel and technology.
* In case of return, Washington will compensate New Delhi promptly for the “fair market value thereof” and the costs incurred as a consequence of such removal.
* Both the countries to set up a Joint Committee for implementation of the civil nuclear agreement and development of further cooperation in this field.
* The agreement grants prior consent to reprocess spent fuel.
* Sensitive nuclear technology, nuclear facilities and major critical components can be transferred after amendment to the agreement.
* India will establish a new national facility dedicated to reprocessing safeguarded nuclear material under IAEA safeguards.
* Nuclear material and equipment transferred to India by the US…
Top Five Advantages of Nuclear Deal
First, it opens many doors for generation of a significantly higher percentage of electricity generation with nuclear power reactors than the present very low percentage of about 2.5%.
Second, the prospect of reducing our energy production deficit through building and commissioning more power reactors (based on low enrichment uranium and unit size of 1,000 Mwe or more) in a short period (now about 4 years compared to seven or eight years earlier) brightens up very considerably.
Third, the spiraling price of oil would upset the kwh cost of distributed electricity from non-nuclear plants and customers, both industrial and non-industrial, may not be assumed to be forever docile.
Fourth, there is a finite probability of disruptions in assured fuel supply over the lifetime of coal or oil plants due to factors beyond the producer’s control. Generally, such disruptions in nuclear facilities are overplayed while those in non-nuclear plants are underplayed.
Fifth, the pace of building nuclear power plants with foreign assistance has been poor due to a twisted interpretation of ’self reliance’ and the price being paid for ‘indigenisation’. This price increases by the day.
The nuclear power reactor design and manufacture industry in the US has been lying dormant for nearly three decades. So, the prospect of a US firm building power reactors for India is zero or negligible — assuming that India would approach US industry. Hence, concerns raised in this regard do not appear to be based on facts on the US ground. However, the withdrawal of US opposition to India’s nuclear power reactor programme sends a clear signal to France, Canada, Germany and Russia. They can breathe easy and do not need to be apprehensive of US reactions.
In the long term, if the US nuclear industry is nursed back to its feet by US domestic polices, there would be viable competition to Europe and Russia which would, almost certainly, be to the customer’s advantage.
There is sound technical analysis to support the position that the plutonium generated in power reactors is quite unsuitable for building up a nuclear arsenal. It is very doubtful that strategic planners and the armed forces would accept an arsenal with weapons of unpredictable (call it statistical, if you wish) yield. And, it is also very doubtful whether `tactical’ nuclear weapons with yields in the few kilotons range using reactor-grade plutonium need to find a place at all in the Indian arsenal. The Minimum Credible Deterrence doctrine declared by India in May 1998 does not need tactical weapons.
The Koodangulam power reactors built in Tamil Nadu by Russia will reduce the energy deficit in the Southern Grid when it goes critical and gets synched with the grid in the coming years. The contract says that spent fuel (containing plutonium, of course) would be returned to Russia, thank you. We need electricity not this spent fuel. It is worth reminding ourselves of Dr Homi Bhabha’s words: No energy is more costly than no energy.
Resources for Indo-US Nuclear Deal : [Rediff], [Wikipedia], [NDTV]
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