Lifting of US curbs on Indian nuclear entities will boost collaboration, get tech access: Experts

The move will help India in the area of rare earths as it deals with critical elements, maintained the noted nuclear physicist Anil Kakodkar.

Mumbai: The US lifting Cold War-era sanctions on three Indian nuclear entities, including the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), will boost collaboration in the key field and give the country access to new technologies, experts said on Thursday as they welcomed the move.

Former DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) secretary Anil Kakodkar, however, observed one should not get too excited with the development as only time will show how the lifting of sanctions will benefit the Indian nuclear energy sector and research.

The move will help India in the area of rare earths as it deals with critical elements, maintained the noted nuclear physicist.

Kakodkar, who served as BARC director, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman and DAE secretary during his decades-long career in the nuclear field, opined that the lifting of restrictions should have happened long time back.

The 81-year-old scientist was the AEC chairman and DAE secretary when the landmark Indo-US civil nuclear deal was signed in 2008.

"This (lifting of curbs) will help in collaboration (in nucleal field). There are now better chances of collaborative initiatives taking off and then sustaining," Kakodkar told PTI.

He emphasised that in an interdependent world where synergy in collaboration is critical, the US move will prove beneficial.

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced lifting sanctions on three Indian entities - BARC, Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL) and Indira Gandhi Atomic Research Centre (IGCAR), a decision coming just days ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20.

Mumbai-based BARC and IGCAR are premier research institutes of the DAE, while the IREL is a PSU under it.

Imposed during the Cold War-era, the removal of sanctions on these Indian entities will support US foreign policy objectives by reducing barriers to advanced energy cooperation, including joint research and development, science and technology cooperation, towards shared energy security needs and goals, America's Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said.

The US and India share a commitment to advancing peaceful nuclear cooperation and associated research and development activities, with strengthened science and technology cooperation over the past several years that has benefitted both countries and their partner countries around the world, BIS noted.

The move comes at a time when China is expanding its footprint in the area of rare earths. It also comes at a time when India is looking to develop small nuclear reactors.

N Saibaba, former chairman and chief executive of the Nuclear Fuel Complex, welcomed the US decision and noted the lifting of sanctions will help India get access to critical atomic technologies.

"Lifting of sanctions will help India get access to new technologies. Now that the two very important entities, the BARC and IGCAR, have been removed from the sanctions list, it has virtually covered the entire DAE," Saibaba noted.

He pointed out that removing curbs on IREL will give a boost to India in the area of critical minerals that are not only required in strategic fields of defence, nuclear and space, but also in manufacturing equipment used in day to day life.

America's decision is positive and reflective of the changed and more strategically-oriented relationship between India and the US, contended Rajeshwari Pillai Rajgopalan, a Resident Senior Fellow with the Canberra-based Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

She said this move should have come long back.

"This should have been done a long time ago. The Indian nuclear establishment remains a mature one, having developed most technologies indigenously. Nevertheless, if India and the US were to meaningfully collaborate in the civil nuclear sector, continuing sanctions on institutions such as BARC were a bit strange and contradictory," she said.