The MoU with the US will be the first of a number of similar deals that New Delhi will enter into with other countries – including France and Russia – for the international nuclear energy centre, being set up by India.
While addressing the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington last April, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced New Delhi’s plan to set up the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership or GCNEP in India.
With the US and other countries agreeing, New Delhi is now set to move ahead with the venture. Sources said that the GCNEP might be set up at Bahadurgarh in Haryana, although a final decision about the location was yet to be taken.
“We are looking forward to global collaboration and cooperation from the International Atomic Energy Agency to set up the state-of-the-art facility. We are expecting an MoU with the US during President Obama’s visit, while more such deals with others are on the pipeline,” a senior official told Deccan Herald.
The state-of-the-art facility will have four schools dealing with Advanced Nuclear Energy System Studies, Nuclear Security, Radiation Safety, and Application of Radioisotopes and Radiation Technology in Healthcare and Agriculture.
It is being conceived as a centre for research and development on design systems that are “intrinsically safe, secure, proliferation resistant and sustainable”.New Delhi has been resisting international pressure to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is still reluctant to make a commitment on signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
But its proposal to set up the GCNEP in India is being cited as yet another instance of its commitment to non-proliferation and safe and peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Decision welcomed
India has also recently signed the Convention on Supplementary Compensation to pave the way for US companies to take part in its nuke energy programme.
“We welcome the commencement of the commercial negotiations between the Indian operators and the US companies, and look forward to an early realisation of our shared goal of a robust India-US cooperation in the civil nuclear sector,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said on Thursday.
She also said that a commercial delegation from the United States would visit India soon to discuss their concerns about the Nuclear Liability Bill that ensured liability of the nuclear plants suppliers in case a mishap occurs as a consequence of latent or patent defect in the equipment supplied by them or due to sub-standard services provided by them or because of gross negligence by them.