The Hindu : Front Page : “Deal will hit domestic capabilities”

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Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008
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“Deal will hit domestic capabilities”

Special Correspondent

KOCHI: The biggest disadvantage of the India-U.S. nuclear deal is that it will force India’s domestic nuclear programme, which has been developed over the past half century under difficult conditions, to take a backseat, according to nuclear scientist A.N. Prasad.

At a seminar on the ‘nuclear deal and the energy sector’ here on Tuesday, Dr. Prasad, former director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and former member of the Atomic Energy Commission, said the deal would turn Homi Bhaba’s vision of making India self-reliant in nuclear power and technology into just a pipedream.

“As a scientist involved with the domestic nuclear programme for nearly 50 years, I feel terribly hurt that the government is allowing the programme to be shackled to American interests,” he said in his keynote speech. “It is a shame that our government has agreed to the one-sided conditionalities.”

He said that India’s nuclear scientists, following Dr. Bhaba’s vision, had laid a strong foundation for achieving long-term energy independence. When the nuclear energy sector was about to take off the deal has struck it down. Back in 1964, India was the fifth nation to have developed reprocessing capability. Currently, it was poised to become a world leader in thorium technology.

The deal would cripple these domestic capabilities and make India dependent on American technology, he warned.

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