Nobody can stop India from pursuing nuke programme: Kakodkar

Bangalore, Aug 17 (UNI) Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman Anil Kakodkar today declared that no country, including the United States, can stop India from pursuing its independent nuclear programme -- strategic or civilian.

Speaking to newspersons after inaugurating the new premises of TIFR's Centre for Fundamental Research for Applicable Mathematics here, he said there was no clause banning any new nuclear test by India in the civil nuclear agreement between the country and the US.

''India will not entertain any hindrance to its independent nuclear programme. We are able to carry out our autonomous strategic nuclear programme. Keeping all this if we get additionalities in nuclear power through civil nuclear cooperation, it is a welcome sign. The nuclear fuel and technology transfer deal with the US does not put any roadblocks in our programmes and the deal meets all our requirements,'' Dr Kakodkar asserted.

Questioned on the curbs on recycling the spent fuel, he said the country had its own nuclear deterrent norms and there would be no change in it. ''We have to be able to reprocess and recycle spent fuel as it offers much larger energy and also from the waste management point of view, it is important that most of the material is recycled. We must be able to reprocess any fuel and the agreement with the US provides for this,'' he added.

MORE UNI