Whats the nuclear deal? And why so much confusion around it?

There has been so much talk about Indo-US agreement on nuclear deal in the recent past in India and elsewhere. So many people have given their opinions on innumerous TV shows on news channels, so much has been written about in all kinds of media – Yet, I couldn’t understand one bit of what is actually going on and I’m guessing there will be other like me.

For all those like me, this posts try to explain some details – This post is not my opinion though, I’ve very limited knowledge on this and neither do I have intentions of gaining knowledge to form an opinion on whether India is doing the right thing or not!

Thanks to a friend of mine who thought I could clarify on this issue – But for his thought I wouldn’t have made this attempt.

Some history:

India is among the few nations in the world that did not sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and therefore doesn’t need to have its nuclear reactors under the radar of IAEA. As India didn’t sign NPT, India faced restriction on sanctions from other countries to use/import nuclear fuel, technology etc.

Bit of digression but a brief on NPT - the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. There are currently 189 countries parties to the treaty, five of which have nuclear weapons: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the People’s Republic of China (the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Back to our story - With growing energy crisis, Nuclear power is recognized as an alternative source to curb the energy crisis and many countries are already moving forward in this direction. India is no different to other countries in its growing energy needs and will have to do something to meet its energy demands through alternative routes. Right now India gets only about 3% of its power from nuclear plants and the country has huge and growing energy needs. It aims to have 25% of its power come from nukes by 2050 and plans an extraordinary expansion of nuclear power.

What is the 123 agreement?

To enter into an agreement with India, US will make an amendment to Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 of US. It lets the US make a one-time exception for India to keep its nuclear weapons without signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The amendment overturns a 30-year-old US ban on supplying India with nuclear fuel and technology, implemented after India’s first nuclear test in 1974. United States also agreed to lobby hard for India to get nuclear fuel from the 35-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which has forbidden sales to India.

Under the amendment, India must separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities (nuclear plants for military purpose like bomb manufacture) and submit civilian facilities (nuclear power plants used for generating power) to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). India says 14 of its 22 nuclear facilities are civilian and agrees to put these 14 facilities under IAEA surveillance.

Why has it become controversial?

Nuclear deal has provoked controversies in both India and US apart from other nations. While the US critics feel it undermines the NPT, which holds that only countries which renounce nuclear weapons qualify for civilian nuclear assistance.

The US administration argued that the deal would bring India into some kind of international compliance, even if it had failed to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Critics said that India was being rewarded for bad behavior and that other nations would be encouraged to cut their own bilateral deals to get nuclear power.

George Bush went ahead and said "Our Congress has got to understand that it’s in our economic interests that India have a civilian nuclear power industry to help take the pressure off the global demand for energy.... And so I’m trying to think differently, not to stay stuck in the past.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization of United Nations that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for military purposes. Critics say the pact could make bomb making at the other eight facilities easier, as they are not under international surveillance.

Why some parties/people in India are opposing this?

Critics in India fear the loss of country’s sovereignty. This agreement will make it difficult for the government to carry out any tests, when such a need arises out of security reasons. The 123 agreement to operationalize the nuclear deal would also stymie India’s right to reprocessing fuel received from the US. Plutonium, retrieved from spent fuel, is key to India’s goal of securing energy independence. Plutonium could be reused with thorium, which is abundant in India unlike uranium, can be used to operate fast-breeder reactors to generate power as well as make full use of the nuclear fuel cycle. The reprocessed fuel, though expensive, yields 30 times more energy than conventional nuclear plants.

This reprocessing technology of India is curbed by the agreement which doesn’t allow the fuel from US to be reprocessed.

The Communist Party of India, the main opposition to the agreement fears the imperialistic policy of US. They fear that this deal may tie our hands when it comes to national security as we can’t act with sovereignty. Any decision taken today should not inhibit the nation’s future ability to develop and pursue nuclear technology for the benefit of the nation. The opposition mainly concerns about India’s foreign policy.

Some also point out that:

• The UPA government is guilty of breach of trust in pursuing the matter of IAEA safeguards without the concurrence of the Left. When the Left gave the go-ahead to the UPA government to negotiate safeguards with the IAEA last November, it was on the understanding that the agreement itself would later be discussed and approved by the joint UPA-Left committee on the subject. The Congress has gone back on this assurance.
• There is lack of transparency on the safeguards agreed with IAEA- the government has not disclosed what these are.
• The IAEA agreement, once signed, will be 'in perpetuity'; once this agreement is signed, the further course of the nuclear deal is out of India's hands. Even if the form of the NSG waiver is unpalatable to India, it is out of our hands.

What makes the US keen on signing the pact?

The deal is estimated to generate about $150 billion in commercial opportunities for American companies, even the deal will likely lead to defense cooperation. US defense is ready to sell brand new F-35 fighter to Indian Air Force, these transactions worth million dollars.

What are the next steps?

• India, in the coming IAEA meeting, will communicate its interest
• US will have amend their laws
• India and US sign the agreement

To sum it up - Deal looks to have some loopholes when it comes to national security. US wants this deal for a variety of reasons including their need to control the world. Yet, we can’t deny that this might help satisfy India’s growing need for Energy/power.