With the Left having given the go-ahead on approaching the IAEA for an India-specific safeguards agreement, the government is wasting no time and has asked Department of Atomic Energy chief Anil Kakodkar to speak to IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei and set the stage for the technical talks besides finding an early date for a team to visit Vienna. It’s learnt that the PM’s high-level panel on the nuclear deal, involving key members of the Atomic Energy Commission, met last night and authorised Kakodkar to proceed with the talks. National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, too, flew into Mumbai today as DAE officials went into a huddle in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre deliberating on how to proceed with the safeguards agreement. The government had already formed a technical group, headed by DAE Director, Strategic Planning, R B Grover, for engaging the IAEA on this. It held one meeting over a year ago when it was decided to first wait for the 123 negotiations to get over. This team includes officials from the MEA and a few more additions are not being ruled out. This technical group will conduct the negotiations and will go to Vienna once dates are made available by the IAEA. The template for India is the INFCIRC 66, which entails putting reactors under permanent safeguards. India, of course, will place 14 reactors as agreed in the Separation Plan. Currently, the IAEA is busy with its board of governors meeting which is considering the DG’s latest report on Iran. But sources said India will definitely make the formal move in Vienna within the next 10 days. The key to India’s negotiations will be three broad concerns specifically put forward by the Left: right to take corrective action in case there is termination of cooperation, right to build a strategic fuel reserve to ensure lifetime supply of fuel for Indian reactors and general fuel supply assurances.While the government has made no formal commitment to the Left, New Delhi will try to address these aspects in the safeguards agreement. Given that IAEA follows the principle of allowing countries to store fuel only for the purpose of “reasonable reactor operating requirements”, India’s effort to store fuel for the entire lifetime of its reactors will be a first for IAEA and will need some discussions. Similarly, IAEA is not a fuel supplier and, therefore, has never entered into a commitment on fuel supply assurances. These are issues which the IAEA too will find no precedent for and, hence, may need more discussions. India, for its part, will hope to ride on the broad international support for the nuclear deal and the fact that ElBaradei was among the first to come out in support of the July 18 joint statement and even the 123 agreement.PM slams ‘false propaganda’New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the “propaganda” that the nuclear deal “will hurt our strategic programme is totally false. This agreement concerns only the civilian side of nuclear energy. It will have no bearing on our strategic programme, which will remain intact.”
