| Indo-US Nuclear Pact Who Gain's?
Rebutting criticism of the US-India nuclear cooperation agreement reached between President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, well-known India expert Selig S Harrison said critics ignore the "geological reality" and "arithmetic" behind it.
The geological reality, Harrison noted in an article in The Washington Post on Monday, is that India has 31 per cent of the world's known deposits of a rare radioactive mineral, thorium, in addition to its substantial resources of uranium.
This, he said, has emboldened New Delhi to embark upon an exponential expansion of its nuclear power-generating capacity, utilising imported uranium-fuelled reactors at first but shifting progressively to thorium-based fast breeder reactors now under construction or on the drawing board.
Fast-breeders are the key to energy independence, since they continuously "breed" never-ending supplies of plutonium alongside the production of electricity. What this means is that India will dramatically multiply its inventory of fissile material in the years ahead, he wrote.
The Bush Administration has "wisely recognised that it is imperative for the United States to bind India legally to the global non-proliferation regime in order to make sure that fissile material is not transferred to others.
"Even though it is not an NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) signatory, India has in practice observed Article 1 of the treaty, which bars such transfers and the Indo-US agreement concluded on July 18 formalises and reinforces the Indian commitment to abide by non-proliferation norms," Harrison observed.
India, Harrison pointed out, "already has an impeccable record of safeguarding its nuclear secrets, in marked contrast to neighbouring Pakistan. But the July 18 accord was linked to the enactment of strengthened export control legislation.
"Equally important, India has agreed to place all of its existing and future civilian nuclear reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards," noted Harrison, a former Washington Post Bureau Chief in South Asia, who is now the Director of the Asia Programme of Centre for International Policy.
Elementary arithmetic, said Harrison, underlines the wisdom of the Administration's decision. India has a population of 1 billion and is expected to reach 1.2 billion within seven years. Rapid population growth drives burgeoning energy demands and with or without US cooperation, New Delhi must escalate its nuclear power capacity.
"For India," said Harrison, "US readiness to help meet its number one national challenge is the litmus test of the sincerity of US rhetoric about a new 'strategic partnership' designed to strengthen India as a counterweight to China."
The NPT itself, Harrison noted, does not bar signatories from providing nuclear technology to non-signatories such as India. But Congress went far beyond the NPT in 1978 legislation that did bar non-signatories from any civilian nuclear cooperation with the US, including in nuclear safety.
This legislation should now be amended and, pending such action, the White House should encourage nuclear cooperation with India by members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, Harrison said.
Well , Its sound's like India is looser in this deal as , it has to seperate Its facility and spies then concentrate on these facilities?
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