The Hindu : Front Page : “We must have access to nuclear energy”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 03, 2007
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“We must have access to nuclear energy”

Staff Reporter

To meet country’s power demands in future: M.R. Srinivasan

— Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

MAKING A POINT: M.R.Srinivasan, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, at a discussion on Indo-US nuclear agreement, organised by Triplicane Cultural Academy on Saturday.

Chennai: If India fails to go ahead with the nuclear deal, it will have to pay a price for being unfriendly with the U.S., former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission M.R. Srinivasan said here on Saturday.

India would not be able to obtain nuclear fuel and technology from the U.S. and other supplier countries nor would it be able to join international nuclear science research programmes without the agreement, Mr. Srinivasan said at a discussion organised by the Triplicane Cultural Academy and the Kasturi Srinivasan Library.

“We must have access to nuclear energy to meet the country’s power demands in the future,” he said. If the deal is finalised, the Department of Atomic Energy would set up nuclear power generation projects. The private sector would also be welcome to participate in nuclear power programmes, he said.

Mr. Srinivasan said India had got a much better 1-2-3 Agreement with the U.S. than China had in terms of provisions for nuclear fuel supply and reprocessing.

N. Ravi, Editor of The Hindu, said India had successfully handled international negotiations but was grappling with domestic concerns.

“It’s as good a deal as we can get… But political management of the deal has not been satisfactory,” Mr. Ravi said. He said the Government must push for acceptance within the country for what was the best pact at the moment to break into the nuclear club.

“Swarms of inspectors”

Retired bureaucrat B.S. Raghavan criticised the agreement as it would mean that “swarms of inspectors” would enter India’s nuclear facilities to gain thorough information on the country’s strategic programme.

All it would take for the agreement to cease is one nuclear test by India, Mr. Raghavan said. “The U.S. has said that it would talk to other countries and persuade them to supply nuclear fuel to India but there is no guarantee,” he said.

Former Chief Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal said the agreement offered an opportunity for India to amend the Atomic Energy Act in order to involve private players in nuclear power generation for only then could the country meet its target of generating 40,000 MW of nuclear power by 2025.

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