India, US seal nuke deal

14 Indian sites to be opened for inspection.

Reversing a history of distrust, India and the US sealed a landmark nuclear deal today that held a beacon of light for power-starved India.

Under the deal, put together after night-long parleys between negotiators from both sides, India has agreed to separate its civilian and military nuclear programmes and place 14 civilian plants under international inspection.

In return, the US will offer nuclear technology and fuel to India, ending the country's long stay in the doghouse after it carried out nuclear tests in 1974 an 1998.

"What this agreement says is, things change, times change, that leadership can make a difference," President George W Bush said at a joint press conference here today.

"We have made history today and I thank you," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

In addition, the two leaders signed 26 other agreements on subjects ranging from cooperation in space to disaster management to agriculture. An Indo-US CEOs' forum submitted its report to the two leaders.

But the cherry on the sundae was the civil nuclear cooperation agreement, which the two leaders pushed through in spite of stiff opposition.

The deal, non-proliferation hawks in the US have argued, legitimises India's nuclear programme, though it has not signed the NPT and this can send the wrong message to wannabe nuclear powers. Bush, on his part, has said that nuclear energy can reduce India's dependence on fossil fuels and, thereby, lower prices for American consumers.

The deal now needs to be cleared by Congress in the US and the Nuclear Suppliers' Group, a 45-member body that regulates transfers of nuclear technology.

Still, all glitches about separation of military and civilian facilities, reprocessing of uranium and curbing the intrusiveness of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by ensuring India-specific safeguards, were ironed out after extended negotiations. Singh said, because Parliament being in session, the details of the agreement would be placed before the House first.

Singh said the process of identifying civilian facilities would begin and discussions would be held with the IAEA on the guidelines for bringing civilian nuclear reactors under its safeguard.

Top sources in the government said this would be done in a "'phased manner". This means that following the discussions, the US moderated its insistence on a permanent and inflexible classification of civilian and military facilities. For India, this is a vital concession.

Although most of India's nuclear programme is indigenous and, therefore, does not come under the purview of the IAEA, the country's dependence on imported uranium renders certain facilities like Tarapore (that use imported uranium) vulnerable to international scrutiny.

This includes those civilian facilities using low grade uranium to produce power, and those using enriched uranium to produce plutonium for military purposes.

CIRUS and Dhruva are the two research reactors that produce high grade uranium, but CIRUS is one of India's oldest reactors and can be put on the civilian list without damaging the military programme.

But what can damage the programme will be the placing of fast breeder test reactors currently under construction in Kalpakkam, that turn thorium into uranium and plutonium. As these will take another 10 years to construct, and the classification of their status will come later.

"Now it is for the US government to go to its Congress and make necessary amendments to the laws (for implementing the deal) and to approach the Nuclear Suppliers Group for working the deal," Singh said.