On Board PM`s Special Aircraft: India and
the US are expected to finalise a crucial agreement on
reprocessing under the landmark civil nuclear deal in 10-12
days, with all but one issue being resolved and negotiations
centring around finalising a mutually acceptable legal text.
"We have arrived into the last stage of negotations...
only one issue remains, that of finalising the legal text,"
National Security Adviser M K Narayanan told journalists
accompanying the Prime Minister on his return home from a
two-nation tour of the US and Trinidad and Tobago.
The two sides were racing against time to conclude the
agreement for setting up of dedicated reprocessing facility
in India before the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and US President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday
but could not do so.
The setting up of reprocessing facility under IAEA
safeguards is a key requirement for implementation of the
Indo-US civil nuclear deal that was signed last year.
Negotiations had gained momentum after intervention at
the highest level, Narayanan said.
The negotiations are almost complete and one more round
of discussions will be required to clinch the agreement,
"possibly in 10-12 days", sources said.
They said the two sides have resolved two of the key
issues that were holding up the conclusion of the agreement.
These were questions like whether one or more dedicated
facility should be set up and what should be the type of
security for these installations which will reprocess spent US
nuclear fuel.
India has been wanting to set up multiple facilities
arguing that it would be beneficial for the US when it starts
setting up nuclear plants in India and would be requiring
facilities to reprocess more and more spent fuel.
It has now been agreed that one dedicated facility would
be set up initially with a provision for more in case the need
arose, the sources said.
With regard to security, it has been agreed that the
protective mechanism would be on the lines of what exists in
the US, the sources said.
The third sticking point was whether reprocessing should
be suspended at any time and in what circumstances and
conditions. Sources said the two sides are working on a
mutually acceptable legal text on it and expressed confidence
that it would be sorted out soon.
On whether the dedicated reprocessing facility will be
used to reprocess only American fuel, the sources said the
commitment is only for US fuel. There should be no problem in
reprocessing fuel of other countries but no such request has
been made to India by any other country.
PTI
