Russia eyeing 12-14 nuclear reactors in India, says envoy

by snuffysmith | December 15, 2009 at 12:18 pm

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Russia dismisses concerns on transfer of nuclear technologies to India. Naturally not. This nuclear deal is an incredible economic bonanza to Russia.

Russia does not believe there are any domestic laws that would prevent Russia from shipping reprocessing and enrichment technologies to India as part of a civil nuclear-cooperation deal being forged by the two countries, according to Ambassador Alexander Kadakin.

Describing the Russia-India pact on nuclear energy as a "pioneering agreement," Kadakin stressed scaling up atomic cooperation with India.

"We don't have domestic laws as strict as in some other countries. We don't see many problems in this field," Russian Ambassador Alexander Kadakin told reporters here when asked about Moscow's stand on the transfer of the sensitive ENR technologies to India.

"Some modus operandi will be worked out so as not to prevent us from pursuing full nuclear cooperation with India," the envoy replied when asked about the status of Russia's reprocessing pact with India.

Alluding to India's burgeoning energy requirements, the envoy said Moscow is looking to set up six to eight new nuclear reactors at a site allocated in West Bengal besides six reactors it is building at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu under two separate arrangements.

"We don't see many problems in this field,"

This announcement comes at a time when the United States has engaged in a protracted negotiation with India over nuclear safeguards. India is not a signator of the Non Proliferation Treaty, and former President George Bush didn't insist on India joining the NPT Treaty as a condition of nuclear technology sales to India. The US and India are still dithering over the language of the text of the draft agreement on reprocessing.

Stringent US laws regarding the transfer of ENR technologies has forced the US and India to enter into a separate reprocessing pact under which New Delhi will set up a dedicated facility for reprocessing spent fuel under international safeguards.

India prefers the Russian arrangement rather than the US pact because it guarantees India an uninterrupted fuel supply in the event of termination of cooperation and gives the reprocessing right to India. At the end of the day, India will have full reprocessing and enrichment capability.

Contrast this with Iran who IS a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.