'India not to accept outdated nuclear tech from US'

Kochi, Nov 1: Declaring there was no question of India accepting outdated technology under the proposed Indo-US nuclear energy cooperation agreement, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar today said there will be no halting of the domestic nuclear energy research and development programme.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Kakodkar, who is also Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, said there would be no halting of the domestic nuclear energy development programme even if the proposed deal came through.

''We have a three-stage domestic programme. That will go on. The proposed deal with the US is to provide additional energy resources,'' he added.

Asked about criticism from the Left that the US was planning to dump its obsolete reactors on India under the agreement, Mr Kakodkar said India had the expertise to assess the technology that was to be imported and would not accept just anything.

''There is no question of India accepting outdated technology.

There will be no compromise on technical standards. We have the expertise to assess what is being imported and the imports would be made based on our technical and commercial assessment,'' he added.

Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) Chairman S K Sharma also said the Board made an ''end-to-end'' review of every reactor design, be it from India, France, Russia or the US.

The country had its own standards and regulations and any reactor being imported into the country would have to satisfy its requirements, he added.

Asked if the ratification process of the deal in the US Congress was too slow, Mr Kakodkar said the process was going to take time.

While there was support for it at the leadership level, several issues had to be ironed out.

On the willingness of the Nuclear Fuel Supply Group countries to supply fuel to India, Mr Kakodar said the group had met last month and some discussions had taken place.

All the issues were inter-linked and were progressing at different levels in the US Congress, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Fuel Supply Group, he added.

Stating that in the long run, the world would realise that the greater use of nuclear energy in India was not only in the country's interest but also in the world's interest, Mr Kakodkar said that by the middle of this century, India's energy requirements were expected to increase ten-fold.

''By 2050, India is expected to consume 50 per cent of the world's coal and 10 per cent of oil. The impact of this on the global energy scenario can be guessed. It would be in the world's interest if a larger share of India's energy needs are met by nuclear power,'' he added.

UNI