NUKE WINTER NO MORE

Energy, Communications, Avionics...The Works

THE Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) has lifted obstacles to India buying products and technologies associated with civilian uses of nuclear technology from (and selling these to) most significant nuclear powers save the US. To enable civil nuclear commerce with the US, that country's legislature must ratify the 123 Agreement finalised between the Bush administration and New Delhi.

    The implications are not just for nuclear energy, significant as these are — our existing reactors running short of fuel would be able to run at full capacity and we would be able to set up new nuclear plants. While National Security Advisor MK Narayanan announced on TV that a grateful India would let the US have a large share of India's domestic market for nuclear energy, right now, the competitive advantage in terms of standardised reactor design, scale and, therefore, costs, is with France and Russia.
    There is also the perception in some circles that the US conditions on supply of nuclear materials might turn out to be unacceptably stringent and intrusive, going by the State department's answers to the House Foreign Relations Committee. NSG deal is a steal on the strategic front
    VITAL sectors of the economy stand to benefit from access to a range of hightechnology products and technologies that had, till now, been outside India's reach because of its status as a nuclear outsider. Many advances in materials, communications, computing, signalling, chemical processing and avionics are deemed sensitive technologies not accessible to nuclear have-nots. Access to these technologies opens up now. This will improve efficiencies across the board in India, from weather forecasting to oil refining.
    But the biggest gain is strategic. Non-proliferation activists objected to what they called India's sweetheart deal on the ground that it gives India an exceptional status: It is the only country that possesses nuclear bombs but is not part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to be accepted into the community of nations allowed to legitimately engage in nuclear commerce. The major powers of the world have recognised India's status as a growing power whose potential to contribute to a stable global order is huge. It is that recognition that persuaded them to work out the current exception to nuclear convention in the form of the waiver from NSG. As India strengthens its strategic capabilities with the help of technologies made accessible as a result of the deal, it would put an end to the current situation of an ever-widening strategic gap between China and the rest of Asia. As India steps into its now acknowledged role as a balancer of power, it will benefit India and the world.
    Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the ruling UPA will gain credit for having made this global breakthrough, against much opposition and at the risk of losing power.