India has right to reprocess spent fuel: Govt

New Delhi, Aug 16 (UNI) The government today told the Rajya Sabha that India reserves the right to reprocess spent fuel, which is fully reflected in the 123 agreement with the United States.

''This is fully reflected in the finalised agreement with the US which indicates that India can reprocess such spent fuel in a dedicated facility under the IAEA safeguards,'' Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply.

He said in pursuance of the joint statement issued by the Prime Minister and the US President George Bush on July 18, 2005, several rounds of negotiations have been held with Washington to finalise an agreement facilitating civilian nuclear cooperation.

Mr Chavan said in view of ''our three-stage programme and closed fuel cycle approach based on our need to utilise our vast Thorium reserves, the right to reprocess the US-origin spent fuel was imperative for India''.

He was replying to a question from Rajya Sabha member N P Durga on whether India has made a fresh proposal by offering to set up a dedicated safeguarding facility for reprocessing of nuclear fuel.

Mr Chavan said the country is planning to build eight new heavy water reactors of 700 MW each. Two units are planned to be located at Kakrapar (Gujarat) and two at Rawatbhata (Rajasthan), which will generate about 10,000 million units (MU) of electricity.

The site selection committee set up by Department of Atomic Energy has evaluated a number of sites including one in Orissa for establishing 700 MWe Pressurised heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs).

UNI