Indo-US nuclear reprocessing pact announcement likely on March 22
This is one of the few important steps left towards implementation of the historic Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
The pact on India's right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel of US origin is likely to be announced by the two countries on March 22.This is one of the few important steps left towards implementation of the historic Indo-US civil nuclear deal which envisages a clearly defined accounting of reprocessing of nuclear material under international safeguards. India and the US had ironed out their differences and finalised the pact on the 'arrangements and procedures' for reprocessing US-origin spent fuel in India during their final meeting on the subject in the first week of this month inNew Delhi as per the 123 Agreement, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) sources said. "Both countries had finalised the text of the accord early this month and are likely to make a formal announcement on Monday after obtaining approval of their political leadership," sources said. "Wait till the formal announcement for more details," they said when asked about various other aspects of the pact. The negotiations were held between a team of India's Department of Atomic Energy officials led by it director, strategic planning group, RB Grover and Richard Stratford, the non-proliferation and disarmament expert in US State Department. Both India and US are keen on completing the deliberations on reprocessing pact before prime minister Manmohan Singh's US visit next month to attend the Nuclear Security Summit, they said.The next step towards implementation of the Indo-US deal will be the `Declaration' or `Assurances' as required by the Code of Federal Regulations Part 810 (pronounced Part Eight Ten) under which the Indian government has to give declaration on behalf of Indian companies.According to US India Business Council sources, under regulation 810 the recipient country has to undertake that it would not to explode a nuclear device, unless exempted, and not use the material received for military purposes."Also, there are requirements about monitoring how and where the material received is used, transferred and stored. These requirements apply to both NPT and non-NPT nuclear countries equally," USIBC sources said. DAE sources said even the US government has to get assurances from their companies trading with India. For the Indo-US civil nuclear deal to be operational, India will also have to put in place a civil nuclear liability law to enable nuclear trade, USIBC sources said.