The Hindu Business Line : Nuclear deal: India, US close to final agreement

New Delhi, July 21 India and the US came closer to a final agreement on a historic civil nuclear deal after reporting “substantial progress” in the ongoing official-level talks over the US-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative, including the bilateral agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation, also known as the ‘123 agreement’.

This follows four days of intense discussions in Washington between the Foreign Secretary, Mr Shivshankar Menon, and the US Under Secretary of State, Mr Nicholas Burns, to resolve differences on outstanding issues, including India’s rights over fuel reprocessing and the fate of the deal if India were to conduct a nuclear test in the future.

The US State Department spokesperson on Saturday issued a statement saying: “…The discussions were constructive and positive, and both Under Secretary Mr Burns and Foreign Secretary Mr Menon are pleased with the substantial progress made on the outstanding issues in the 123 agreement. We will now refer the issue to our Governments for final review.” It added that both the US and India look forward to the completion of these remaining steps and to the conclusion of this “historic initiative”.

The ‘123 agreement’ basically aims to capture all operational aspects of the deal, which was agreed upon by the US President, Mr George W. Bush, and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on July 18, 2005, and reiterated in a joint statement on March 2, 2006. Once the Government approvals are in place, the pact needs to be cleared by the US Congress. India also needs to sign an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency and get the approval of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The progress on the deal gives a shot in the arm for the Indian nuclear power programme by reversing three decades of US sanctions and opening up access to $100-billion worth of American business opportunity, besides access to nuclear technology and fuel from NSG countries. The Centre is also in the process of finalising coastal sites for imported Light Water Reactors-based projects and is looking at large capacity nuclear power plants of 6,000-8,000 MW. The Government’s Integrated Energy Policy has set a target to generate 63,000 MW of power from nuclear resources by 2032.

Work is also on for amending the Atomic Energy Act to involve the private sector in nuclear generation. At present, the State-owned Nuclear Power Corporation and its sister-concern Bhavini are the only organisations permitted to operate in the nuclear generation business.

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