U.S., India formally sign nuclear reprocessing pact
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and India on Friday formally signed an agreement on reprocessing spent nuclear fuel that U.S. officials hope will allow American firms a share of India's $150 billion nuclear energy market.
The agreement, signed by Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Bill Burns and Indian Ambassador to the United States H.E. Meera Shankar, will enable Indian reprocessing of U.S.-originated nuclear material under the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
It is part of the countries' 2008 bilateral civilian atomic pact that ended India's nuclear isolation after its 1974 atomic test. The pact gave India access to U.S. technology and fuel, while also opening up the global nuclear market to India.
"Increased civil nuclear trade with India will create thousands of new jobs for the U.S. economy while helping India to meet its rising energy needs in an environmentally responsible way by reducing the growth of carbon emissions," the U.S. State Department said in a press release.
The pact is expected to enter into force in early August. But a hurdle remains before U.S. firms are expected to begin participating in the Indian nuclear market.
U.S. firms are reluctant to do business in India without legislation that underwrites their compensation liability in the case of industrial accidents.
Legislation to limit nuclear firms' liability in the case of industrial accidents has stalled in the Indian parliament, though it has been cleared by the cabinet.
Opposition parties seek to put a maximum liability of about $450 million on the state-run reactor operator without placing any compensation burden on private suppliers and contractors.
India has offered to tender construction of two nuclear power plants, a business opportunity worth $10 billion, to U.S.-based firms such as General Electric Co and Westinghouse Electric Co, a subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba Corp.
But the liability issue has put U.S. firms at a competitive disadvantage over Russian and French firms whose accident liability is underwritten by their governments. The Russian and French have already been awarded contracts.
(Reporting by Corbett B. Daly; Editing by Jackie Frank)
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Bad news for the world. Now every small country like Burma (Myanmar) will want Nuke. India will be more than happy to sell.
India’s defense establishment wants and has nuclear weapons – no doubt about it – but its hardly a driving issue for the Indian government.
The biggest security concern in India is access to energy, water and infrastructure to sustain a super-hot booming economy. The energy choices are nuclear, gas, and coal. Gas is primarily supplied to India from Iran and the US has put pressure on India to stop buying. India has plenty of coal and like China will be building 100’s of sulfur polluting plants. That pollution will eventually impact us in the form of acid rain. The cleanest way to bridge the gap for 25 years is nuclear – after that solar and wind can kick in. You can comment that India should not have nuclear power – but why dont you give your preferred alternative. a) buy gas from Iran so they can build nukes b) build 100’s of coal plants or c) state that India shouldn’t industrialize. Those are the only possible options. The US govnt knows this and thats why the changed the rules for India. All the other scenarios were much more risky.
Finally, the reason the US is comfortable with supplying to India is that India has bought advanced technology from France, UK, Israel, Russia and the US and has never broke an agreement and transferred technology to another country. Have you ever been to Burma and India? I have and your claims are hilarious. It would be like the US selling nukes to Venezuela.
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