India nuclear inspection plan backed

By Stephen Fidler in London and Amy Kazmin in New Delhi
Published: August 1 2008 12:25

The United Nations atomic watchdog has approved a controversial agreement that would increase the number of Indian nuclear reactors it inspects in a move that should ease the way for a nuclear co-operation deal between the US and India.
The unanimous approval by the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna will expand from six to 14 the numbers of reactors under IAEA safeguards, leaving eight others not under the agency’s remit.

The approval is the first of two international steps required before the US-India pact, which allows the sales of civil nuclear technology and materials to India, can be finalised.
The second step – where the agreement could face greater resistance – is approval from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which has hitherto barred transfers of nuclear related equipment to India. An NSG meeting that will begin discussions of the India deal will start on August 21 and could seek to set further conditions before allowing the agreement to go ahead.
Critics have argued that the deal undermines the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which India is one of three countries never to have been a signatory.
Most international nuclear co-operation with India ceased after India tested a nuclear weapon in 1974 using plutonium produced from nuclear reactors in contravention of understandings with the US and Canada. This test also led to the formation of the NSG.
A handful of countries raised objections about the agreement, which some see as establishing a double standard for friends and adversaries of the US.
The countries raising objections included, diplomats said, Iraq, Austria, Ireland, Switzerland, Brazil and Japan. Some raised concerns that India had not joined the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty barring nuclear weapons testing.
Some critics had also argued that the agreement contained loopholes that would allow India – in the words of analysts from the Arms Control Association, a non-profit group based in Washington – “to legally and unilaterally withdraw safeguarded nuclear materials or facilities from safeguards”.
One diplomat said the IAEA was satisfied that withdrawal of any facilities “would be something like North Korea”, which was condemned internationally after it unilaterally announced its withdrawal from the NPT in 2003.
Supporters of the agreement said it brought India closer to the international nuclear fold.
Even if the NSG grants India a quick waiver and Washington is able to send the relevant legislation to Congress in the first days of September, it could be an uphill struggle to get the deal approved before November elections, and the end of the Bush administration. While both the Democrat and Republican candidates for the US presidency are thought to broadly support the deal, it is unlikely to be a big priority for a new administration.
India, which depends on imported fuel for 70 per cent of its energy needs, is looking to nuclear energy – developed with the help of foreign fuel and technology – to help it fill its current power shortfall, and the power demand of its rapidly growing economy.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008