Kalpakkam
(Tamil Nadu), Jan 18
Unhappy with the final shape the India-US civil nuclear energy deal
is taking, two leading scientists have cautioned the government to
act before it is too late and take the concerns of the scientific
community into account.
"While in New Delhi political and economic considerations are taken
into account, it was time the scientific community should stand up
and make its concerns known to the government," said A.N. Prasad, a
former director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
"It is already late and the Hyde Act is through, (but) at least
before the 123 Agreement the government must take into account
concerns of the scientific community," Prasad said Thursday while
delivering the inaugural address at a two-day symposium at BARC's
Kalpakkam campus, 80 km south of Chennai.
"It is we, the scientists, who have to finally deliver (the
technology) and it is the scientists who suffer the denial of
technology and barriers to research," he said.
The P-5 countries (the US, Russia, China, France, and Britain) have
about 217 nuclear reactors between them and only a dozen of these
are open to international inspection, Prasad said, adding the July
2005 agreement between President George Bush and Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh places "as many as 14 reactors from one single
country (India) under inspection".
"Can any scientist work with someone breathing down his neck?" he
asked, adding: "It is because of our (scientists') contributions
that India is able to talk to a superpower.
"The deal gives the nuclear industry in the US an opportunity to
revive and make some money, sell fuel and reactors to India. With
the deal, we may get some uranium in fits and starts and be able to
import a few reactors, open to inspection and making us dependent on
technology received."
He also favoured complete freedom for India's innovative reactor
programme, an emerging technology concept.
"If the deal allows us imports, it should also allow us to export
our own indigenously developed technologies, but as you all know the
Hyde Act controls this," Prasad added.
"Supposing our security perception changes... Weapons design too is
subject to change and our requirements may change.
"We have to go by past experiences with the US and remember what
happened in 1993, when an act set aside an agreement," Prasad said,
referring to the stoppage by the US of the promised U-fuel supply to
the Tarapur reactor after Pokharan-I test with retrospective effect.
"Before the 123 Agreement, the government must ensure that the
assurances addressing each of our concerns - what is mandatory, what
is advisory, what is exempt from inspection - the small print in the
deal is completely clarified and in writing and made legally
binding," he said.
His views were echoed by M.R. Srinivasan, former chairman of the
Atomic Energy Commission, who delivered the Nani A. Palkhivala
memorial lecture in Chennai Wednesday.
With the Hyde Act "India will be denied the option of a nuclear test
for all time to come," Srinivasan said, adding that New Delhi had
been put in "an indefensible position" by the deal as the Hyde Act
called for a moratorium on the production of fissile material.
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