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Concern over safety of nuke installations

An estimated 90 nuclear bombs are stored in six or so government-run sites.

Kalpakkam: India’s nuclear explosive materials are vulnerable to theft, U.S. officials and experts warned on Thursday but Washington has chosen not to press for tougher security while its trade with India is booming, the Centre for Public Integrity said in a report.

In an alarming incident last year, a Central Industrial Security Force jawan, assigned to safeguard nuclear facility here, shot dead two more men and seriously injured another two.
According to the report, the episode was an example of what officials here and outside India depict as serious shortcomings in the country’s nuclear guard force, tasked with defending one of the world’s largest stockpiles of fissile material and nuclear explosives.

An estimated 90 nuclear bombs are stored in six or so government-run sites patrolled by the same security force, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an independent think tank, and Indian officials.

The Kalpakkam shooting as a result alarmed Indian and Western officials who question whether India — surrounded by unstable neighbours — has taken adequate precautions to safeguard its sensitive facilities and keep the building blocks of a devastating nuclear bomb from being stolen by insiders with grievances, ill motives, a website publicintegrity.org reported.

Although experts say they regard the issue as urgent, Washington is not pressing India for quick reforms. The Obama administration is instead trying to avoid any dispute that might interrupt a planned expansion of U.S. military sales to Delhi, several senior U.S. officials said in interviews.

( Source : PTI )
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