The Week's Nuclear Round-Up: 19-25 November 07

India

• Menon holds talks with Mulford; Kakodkar meets ElBaradei; China indicates its support for India at NSG

With the Left parties acquiescing to talks on the India-specific safeguards with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the government has quickly got its act together. Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon held a meeting with the US Ambassador, David Mulford on 19 November to discuss the next steps and the timeline for the implementation of the nuclear agreement. It is expected that India would not take more than a few weeks to negotiate the safeguards agreement with the IAEA. The three important points of negotiations would be the issue of fuel supply assurances, the corrective measures that India can take in case of disruption of fuel supplies and India’s right to build a fuel reserve.

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The Week's Nuclear Round-Up 12-18 November '07

India

• Indo-Russian Koodankulam agreement fails to materialise; Left allows government to talk to IAEA; PM, Sonia bat for nuclear deal at AICC meeting

The much expected Indo-Russian agreement for the construction of four additional reactors at the Koodankulam site failed to materialize during Prime Minster Manmohan Singh’s recent visit to Moscow. No reasons were assigned for the agreement not being signed.23 Some reports suggested that the decision could be due to the domestic problems that the government was facing with operationalising the nuclear deal.[1]

In other developments, Dr. Singh reiterated during a meeting of the All India Congress Committee that Indo-US nuclear agreement concerned only the civil side of the nuclear programme and would have no bearing on India’s strategic programme. Congress President Sonia Gandhi also affirmed that the deal would facilitate India’s access to fuel and new technologies to fulfil its requirements in the energy sector.[2]

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The Week's Nuclear Round-Up 5-11 November '07

India

• Indian expert to be sent to Switzerland to explain Indo-US nuclear deal; India-Russia to sign agreements for 4 more reactors during Dr. Singh’s visit

Switzerland President Micheline Calmy-Rey told reporters at the end of her New Delhi visit during the week that she had requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to send an Indian expert to Switzerland in order to explain the Indo-US nuclear deal.[1]

It was also reported that India and Russia would sign an agreement for building four more nuclear reactors at Koodankulam during Dr. Singh’s upcoming visit to Moscow. Reports quoted an unnamed Russian official as stating that the ongoing civil nuclear energy cooperation between the two countries was independent of the fate of the Indo-US nuclear deal.[2] Russia has also been willing to build fast neutron reactors for Indian power plants after international sanctions are lifted against New Delhi in civil nuclear cooperation.

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It's about the Fuel, Stupid!

Published in the IPCS website in November 2007.

PM Singh (IBN Live)

There was a sense among supporters of the nuclear deal that if India missed the bus on the Indo-US nuclear agreement, it would come back to haunt us sooner rather than later. What one did not know was that, this would happen so soon. The recent news about the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NCPIL) deciding to shut down 5 units due to lack of fuel though unfortunate is not unexpected. The incident is the result of a mismatch between demand and supply of uranium from operational mines that has hit Indian domestic nuclear power programme quite hard in the last couple of years. Indian companies like the NCPIL have reached a stage in their learning curves where they are able to construct and commission nuclear power plants in relatively shorter time-frames. However, on the supply side, there is just not enough fuel coming out of the domestic uranium mines to power these reactors.

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