By IANS
New Delhi : Any pact that India signs with Russia or any other country for the supply of nuclear reactors would be a “dead letter” without a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), parliament was informed Thursday.
“Without a IAEA safeguards agreement and a clear and unconditional NSG waiver, any agreement with Russia or any other country would be a dead letter,” Prithviraj Chavan, minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, said during question hour in the Rajya Sabha.
He was responding to a question on why an agreement on the supply of four additional Russian reactors for the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu was not signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow earlier this month.
“In January 2007, a memorandum of intent had been signed for four additional Russian reactors to be sited at Kudankulam. Work is now in progress on an inter-governmental agreement on this between India and Russia.
“However, unless the NSG guidelines are changed, there cannot be nuclear commerce with any nation,” Chavan maintained.
In this context, he noted that IAEA safeguards would govern any fuel supplies from Russia’s new Angarsk Internatioanal Uranium Enrichment Centre that is expected to begin production in 2015.
Responding to a supplementary on India’s uranium reserves and its plans for atomic mining, Chavan said the country could generate 10,000 MW of power with indigenous supplies.
“There are extensive plans for augmenting atomic mining. Right now, we are mostly dependant on the Jaduguda mines in Jharkhand. There is also a new facility in Andhra Pradesh and we have just opened a second mine there.
“There are plans for opening facilities in Karnataka and Meghalaya and these are awaiting environmental clearance,” Chavan stated.
Earlier, as the house assembled, MPs of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) walked out to protest the passage of a controversial bill fixing the retirement age of the director of the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the Rajya Sabha Wednesday.
The bill has been seen as a means of easing out incumbent P. Venugopal, who is locked in a turf war with Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss.
“We object to the manner in which this house passed the bill. In protest, we are walking out for the whole day,” BJP member Sushma Swaraj said.
A walk out is normally a symbolic protest, with MPs returning to the house after a few minutes.