Arms expert claims some flaws in India’s safeguards text
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 3:07 am Under India News 17 views
A leading US Arms expert has picked holes in the draft nuclear safeguards accord submitted by India to IAEA saying there are some clauses which may raise questions on the effectiveness of the nuclear watchdog to monitor the country’s civilian nuclear programme.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, said the provisions needed clarity before the IAEA gives its seal of approval to the safeguards pact which is the next step in the operationalisation of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. The draft was circulated to IAEA’s Board of Governors in Vienna yesterday.
Though much of the 23-page document is in line with other standard safeguard agreements. Kimball especially picked out the clause in the draft which said India “may take corrective measures to ensure uninterrupted operation of its civilian nuclear reactors in the event of disruption of foreign fuel supplies.”
Kimball said this provision could open the possibility of restricting IAEA monitoring of the country’s civilian atomic power programme.
“The board should ask what ‘corrective measures’ are supposed to mean,” Kimball said, adding, it could mean “we will withdraw from safeguards those facilities that we need to withdraw from and we will use in those facilities other, unsupervised fuel sources.”
Kimball said the draft also does not make a mention of nuclear facilities that India has voluntarily agreed to place under IAEA safeguards saying it was “abnormal”.
Although those facilities –14 of the nation’s 22 reactors — are listed in a separate and widely published Civil Nuclear Separation Plan drawn up two years ago by India, the empty annexe raised questions among critics.
India’s motives were not clear, he said, but added that it appeared “they’re trying to preserve their options to put some reactors in or take some out” from IAEA monitoring, depending on future bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements.
And a section where India lists the facilities to be under IAEA supervision is left blank.
As for the blank list, “it matters which facilities you are placing under safeguards because some of India’s facilities have greater or lesser relevance to its (military) nuclear program,” said Kimball.
Without IAEA safeguards, India cannot hope to gain the business of countries exporting nuclear technology, which are grouped in the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
India is scrambling to find enough uranium to supply both power sector and its nuclear weapons facilities.
But, even if the board approves the India-IAEA agreement later this month or in early August, the Nuclear Suppliers Group nations are not expected to discuss an exemption to the rules for India until September.
That would likely delay attempts by the U.S. administration to push Congress to approve a landmark 2005 US-India deal that foresees the U.S. sharing its civilian nuclear know-how with India.
India first conducted a nuclear test 24 years ago as it broke out of its foreign-supplied civilian program to develop atomic arms.
Nuclear Suppliers Group states, including the United States, have restricted nuclear trade since 1992 with states that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or don’t have comprehensive safeguards.
The draft nuclear safeguards pact India submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency on
Wednesday contains ambiguities that must be clarified before the U.N. watchdog approves the deal, a leading expert said.
The IAEA said the safeguards text, which India hammered out with IAEA inspectors early this year and is a key element in a landmark 2005 U.S.-Indian nuclear cooperation deal, had been sent to the agency’s 35-nation board in Vienna after the New Delhi government gave the green light.
The draft, which was circulated by Washington-based think tanks, contained several points that “raise questions that board members need to get clarity on” because they would restrict international monitoring of India’s atomic programs, said Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association.
He said a key red flag is raised by a clause in the draft that says India “may take corrective measures to ensure uninterrupted operation of its civilian nuclear reactors in the event of disruption of foreign fuel supplies.”
Disruption of fuel supplies would happen only if India were to resume testing of nuclear weapons and that loophole would blunt any IAEA effort to keep that country’s civil nuclear power program from being used to augment its atomic arsenal.
“Does that mean that India intends to withdraw from what are supposed to be permanent safeguards if it tests and other states decide to terminate fuel supplies?” asked Kimball.
“If so, that is a big problem and the Indian government has not clarified what that means,” he said.
“Abnormal mission”
India — one of just three nations outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) — developed atomic bombs in secret and conducted a nuclear test in 1974, prompting the United States to ban sales of U.S. nuclear fuel and reactor technology.
In addition to getting IAEA governors’ approval, India must also obtain a waiver for the nuclear deal from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, where some members may resist the deal because NSG regulations ban trade with non-NPT states.
Proponents of the U.S.-India accord say it will move the Asian giant’s trade and diplomatic relations closer to the West and more broadly promote an alternative to high-polluting and expensive oil and gas energy in developing nations.
Critics say it will encourage nuclear proliferators and weaken the Western case against the nuclear ambitions of Iran or North Korea.
Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a former Bush administration official and proponent of the deal, said fears of another Indian nuclear weapons test were theoretical and India had too much to risk by testing. “With the investments that they have made in this deal, the incentives not to test actually grow,” he said.
(PTI)
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
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