Report: India-US nuke deal now in a tangle at the IAEA

12 January 2008

New Delhi: Indian negotiators on the nuclear deal maybe finding it difficult to convince the IAEA on two key issues, according to reports in the media. If true, this problem may act as another hurdle in the operationalization of the nuclear issue before the US Congress sets its eyes firmly on the election path and the Bush administration assumes a lame-duck status.

Foreign secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon, said Friday that three earlier rounds of talks with the UN nuclear watchdog had been smooth, and expressed the hope that "we would wrap it up in the next round of talks in mid-January."

However, sources suggest that India may have failed to persuade IAEA to meet its concerns on two crucial issues.

First, India wants the "agreed text" to clearly mention its right to take "corrective measures" to ensure uninterrupted operation of its safeguarded civilian nuclear reactors if foreign fuel supplies are stopped for some reason, as in the case of the lifting of the moratorium on fresh tests.

Second, negotiators from both sides are yet to agree on the quantum of India's strategic fuel reserve needed for the entire life term of its safeguarded reactors. Under the separation plan, from the 22 nuclear power reactors in operation or under construction, the number of civilian reactors for which fuel is sought numbers 14.

IAEA would appear to be hedging on the grounds, firstly, that it is not in the business of supplying fuel, and secondly that it would not like to concede anything to India, which may become a precedent for other countries.