"Indian and U.S. officials are set tomorrow to discuss arrangements under which New Delhi could reprocess nuclear fuel purchased from the United States"
Could this have any thing to do with laser enrichment????
India, U.S. to Hold Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Talks Monday, July 20, 2009
Indian and U.S. officials are set tomorrow to discuss arrangements under which New Delhi could reprocess nuclear fuel purchased from the United States, the Indo-Asian News Service reported (see GSN, June 11).
India would use a facility within its borders to reprocess spent fuel, an effort that can generate nuclear-weapon material. The site would operate under monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency, under the terms of the U.S.-Indian nuclear trade deal.
New Delhi might also today identify locations today for two civilian nuclear facilities that the United States plans to build. Anticipated locations are in the states of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, sources indicated (Indo-Asian News Service I/Hindustan Times, July 19).
The disclosure is not likely to yield immediate power plant construction contracts with U.S. firms such as Westinghouse Electric Co. or General Electric Co., the Wall Street Journal reported last week (Amol Sharma, Wall Street Journal, July 16).
India last year agreed to allow international inspections of its civilian nuclear sites in exchange for access to U.S. nuclear material and technology. France and Russia have also signed nuclear trade agreements with the South Asian state since last September, when the Nuclear Suppliers Group approved such arrangements with New Delhi (see GSN, Sept. 8, 2008).
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday played down disagreements between the Washington and New Delhi on nonproliferation issues and emphasized that India could choose whether to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, IANS reported.
"We will work for a 21st century nonproliferation regime. The U.S. will continue to do whatever we can to strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty," Clinton said during a trip to India. "But I understand long-standing concerns by the Indian government. It's a natural concern.
"What I want to discuss with my Indian counterparts, [Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh] and others is what can we do together to act against proliferation," she said. "I have been very impressed by the comments that a number of Indian officials have made about new ways of seeking approaches that we can explore together."
"The Obama administration is trying to get Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty passed by our Congress. And I think that this will be an option of course for the Indian government," she said.
Clinton said she would speak with Indian Foreign Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna about cooperative strategies "to prevent the proliferation of the nuclear and other weapons to nonstate actors like al-Qaeda" (Indo-Asian News Service II/Hindustan Times, July 19).
Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has indicated "that France is ready for full civilian nuclear cooperation with India," Singh told Indian lawmakers Friday.
"He was absolutely emphatic that France was eager for full civil nuclear agreement with India. Full includes ENR (enrichment and reprocessing) technology,” Singh said (Indo-Asian News Service III/Prokerala.com, July 17).
India has received a shipment of uranium fuel pellets from Russia and a supply of yellowcake powder from the French firm Areva, The Hindu reported.
India's Hyderabad Nuclear Fuel Complex has begun fashioning the materials into fuel rods with the permission of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said S.K. Jain, head of the Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd. (T.S. Subramaniam, The Hindu, July 16).
http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20090720_5190.php
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