India unveils landmark US nuclear deal

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NEW DELHI, Aug 3 (AFP): India and the United States unveiled Friday the text of the operating agreement for their controversial civilian nuclear technology sharing deal.
The agreement, which took two years to complete, spells out how a plan for the US to share nuclear technology with India will work, including thorny issues like reprocessing rights and the creation of a fuel reserve for India.
The US Congress in December approved legislation allowing US exports of civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India for the first time in 30 years, a move intended to reverse sanctions on the Asian giant for its nuclear tests.
But the operating agreement goes one step further, allowing India to reprocess spent fuel under safeguards by the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The pact outlines the safeguards India will have to put into place for the reactors that will benefit from the technology.
The deal also addresses Pakistan's concerns, ruling out the use of any transferred nuclear material for nuclear explosives devices or for military purposes.
It runs for an initial term of 40 years but can be terminated by either party before that with a year's notice.
The whole accord has to win the approval of the US Congress and the Indian parliament.
India first has to negotiate a "safeguards" agreement with the IAEA and gain the support of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group.
The deal could open up a whopping 100 billion dollars in opportunities for American businesses, according to the US Chamber of Commerce.
Meanwhile, India's main opposition Hindu nationalists dismissed the Indo-US nuclear deal as "unsatisfactory" just hours after the text was unveiled Friday.
Communists, key allies of the ruling Congress party, reserved their reaction to the landmark civilian nuclear agreement.
But J.P. Mathur, senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose last government carried out nuclear tests in 1998, told AFP: "It is an unsatisfactory deal.
"Washington could pull out of the deal if India tested a nuclear device," he said.
Mathur would not elaborate until the conclusion of BJP consultations on the deal which were underway.
Former BJP foreign minister Yashwant Sinha said the United States had offered no firm commitment to New Delhi regarding fuel supply, reprocessing and return of equipment as part of the nuclear deal.
"There are a lot of unenforceable commitments from the US in lieu of enforceable commitments from India," he said.
The deal, clinched in Washington last month, wrapped up two years of negotiations and aims to bring New Delhi into the loop of global nuclear commerce after a gap of three decades.
The communists wanted time to study the details of the 22- page accord.
"The text has just been released. We will not say anything before studying it thoroughly," Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) told the Press Trust of India news agency.
The agreement spells out how a plan for Washington to share nuclear technology with New Delhi will work, including thorny issues like reprocessing rights and the creation of a fuel reserve for India.