Ahead of G-20, India offers nuke help

India has proposed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it can send experts to deal with the Fukushima nuclear incident and the emerging fallouts even as G-20 countries are set to discuss a new universal framework for nuclear safety ahead of the group’s summit in Cannes in November this year.

India has proposed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it can send experts to deal with the Fukushima nuclear incident and the emerging fallouts even as G-20 countries are set to discuss a new universal framework for nuclear safety ahead of the group’s summit in Cannes in November this year.

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Indian proposal for sending experts was made to IAEA recently, and not bilaterally to Japan, government sources said. “We have a fair regulatory mechanism in place in the country. Our experts at the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) are doing a good job in the field of ensuring nuclear safety,” pointed out an official.

Meanwhile, G-20 grouping consisting of major advanced and emerging economies accounting for 85% of world’s economy and two third of its population is set to discuss a French proposal to have a new framework and guidelines on nuclear safety after Fukushima incident. France holds the current presidency of the G-20.

The framework the G-20 is planning is aimed regulation and guidelines between different countries as well as internationally. “Everybody has different set of rules when it comes to nuclear safety. We need to have regulations and guidelines in place for nuclear safety that is clear and universal in nature and G-20 is an appropriate forum for doing so”, diplomatic sources familiar with the proposal said. And the need for such guideline is being increasingly felt after the Fukushima accident.

There are 450 nuclear reactors in the world and they are expected to be 750 by 2030, though the option of nuclear energy is being intensely debated after Fukushima incident.