E-Paper
Fuelling the deal
There should be no misunderstanding about this: the Russian decision to supply uranium to fuel the Tarapur reactors is not an attempt to buck the US-led process of providing India a place in the world nuclear order.
There should be no misunderstanding about this: the Russian decision to supply uranium to fuel the Tarapur reactors is not an attempt to buck the US-led process of providing India a place in the world nuclear order — it is part of the same process. For a variety of reasons, including the bill before the US Congress to make an exception for India in US non-proliferation laws, the administration has come out with token criticism of the deal. In fact, the July 18, 2005 agreement that heralded the US policy change specifically made a provision for the “expeditious consideration of fuel supplies for safeguarded nuclear reactors at Tarapur”. Unfortunately, opponents of the deal, both in the US and India, slowed it down to the point that it wasn’t possible for the US to resume supplies, and so, the Russians stepped in.
Previous suppliers have included France in 1982 and China in 1993 but both these countries were not members of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) cartel at the time. It may be recalled that Russia had provided the last lot of fuel in 2001 invoking a clause that permits an exception on grounds of safety of the reactors. But thereafter, Moscow had made it clear that no more would be forthcoming till India came to an arrangement with the NSG. The Russian decision to go ahead with the supply now, after formal notification of the NSG using the same safety clause, should not be seen as some crack in the otherwise solid front that the NSG has now put up against non-NPT signatories.
It is, though, an acknowledgement of the distance India has travelled in assuaging the NSG’s concerns over India’s largely unsafeguarded programme. Even if the effort to get the US and the NSG to formally change their rules fails, India has managed to establish a benchmark of the areas of agreement which could serve as a guide for the future.
