India’s isolation from the world trade in fuel for its nuclear power plants, imposed by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, will be over before this year is out with India set to complete the process of placing its civilian reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. Exports of nuclear fuel to India were stopped in 1974 by the US, Canada and others after New Delhi carried out its first nuclear test at Pokhran under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This also led to the creation of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a cartel that exports nuclear fuel and sets the rules for export. India was under tremendous pressure after this embargo by the NSG as she was short of uranium.
The situation thawed after India under Dr Manmohan Singh signed an agreement with the US in 2005 according to which India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities, place all civil nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards by December 2014 and close down the Cirus reactor supplied by Canada. It may be mentioned that the plutonium produced by Cirus was used for the Pokhran blast. The rest is history. While India stands to benefit, the bigger beneficiaries will be the US and other countries exporting nuclear plants and equipment who are in the race for a share of India’s huge nuclear power programme.
