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Safeguards in nuclear deal for post-test scenario

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BS Reporters New Delhi
If India conducts another nuclear test breaking its self-imposed moratorium, nuclear commerce between the US and India will not snap immediately.
 
The US will, as part of the 123 Agreement, help India set up a nuclear fuel reserve and engage other countries to ensure continuity of supplies, US Ambassador to India David Mulford said today.
 
Mulford, while concurring with Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, that the word 'test' was not used anywhere in 123 Agreement, nevertheless pointed out that India knew US laws on the matter and was free to use its judgement in case of another test.
 
The specific provisions of the Hyde Act passed by Congress made the consequences of such an action quite clear: the right to demand the return of nuclear fuel and equipment provided by the US.
 
However, this would require six months' notice and the creation of a six-month reserve, allowing for India to find other sources of supply, the text says.
 
Mulford, who spoke to reporters via teleconferencing from the US, said India had retained the right to reprocess fuel in the agreement, but would create and design a specific facility where this would be kept under IAEA safeguards.
 
Mulford said the most important issue now, after the text was made public "in a few days", would be to keep to a calendar that ensured it was this Congress that cleared the final 123 text through an 'up and down' vote.
 
"Next year is election year for us. Things will become more complex as the year goes on. We hope negotiations in the IAEA are concluded quickly in the next one or two months, followed by the Nuclear Suppliers' Group, which gives a clean change of rules, and then some Congressional business days are set aside for this. I am confident the 123 Agreement will get broad bipartisan support," Mulford said.
 
He also said Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice would visit India in the autumn, and not in August as previously announced.
 
To repeated queries as to what would happen if India decided to test, Mulford said India already had a moratorium on testing. If it decided to change policy, it would have to factor the US reaction to it before it did so.

 
 

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First Published: Jul 31 2007 | 12:00 AM IST

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