By IANS
New Delhi : India will begin negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Wednesday on a safeguards pact for 14 of its civilian nuclear reactors when atomic energy chief Anil Kakodkar holds talks with IAEA boss Mohammed ElBaradei in Vienna.
The negotiations with the UN nuclear watchdog will focus on fine tuning an India-specific safeguards pact that will include fuel supply guarantees for the first time, given India’s unique status as a state with nuclear weapons which is seeking global civilian nuclear cooperation.
As India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the safeguards pact will be unlike the ones applicable to the five official nuclear weapons states and will also be different from the one applicable to non-nuclear weapon states. The template for the India-IAEA pact will be INFCIRC 66, which involves putting reactors under permanent safeguards.
“That is why it may take some time. But even when we take that into account, it won’t take more than a few weeks to conclude the safeguards pact,” a source in the department of atomic energy told IANS from Mumbai.
The government has, however, not set a timeline for concluding a safeguards pact with the IAEA – a key step towards making the nuclear deal operational.
Kakodkar leaves Tuesday night for Vienna, a Department of Atomic Energy source said.
The DAE’s strategic planning group director Ravi B. Grover, along with other officials, is part of Kakodkar’s delegation.
India’s envoy at the IAEA in Vienna Sheel Kant Sharma has already spoken to ElBaradei about Kakodkar’s visit.
Kakodkar’s meeting with ElBaradei will take place a day ahead of the regular board meeting of the Vienna-based body, which will discuss implementation issues on current safeguards and technical co-operation projects undertaken by the agency.
The Indian government decided on approaching the IAEA for negotiations on an India-specific safeguards agreement after a green signal from its Left allies, who are fiercely opposed to the operationalisation of the nuclear deal.
The Left parties gave a go-ahead to the government to hold talks with IAEA in a joint meeting Friday on the condition that the text of the final safeguards pact be shown to them for approval before sending it to the IAEA board of governors for signing.
After India concludes a safeguards pact with the IAEA, the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) will hold a special meeting to decide on changing its guidelines to allow global civil nuclear commerce with New Delhi.
The 123 agreement between India and the US will then be sent to the US Congress for a final up and down vote before the two sides can resume civil nuclear commerce after a gap of nearly three decades.