India, US talks soon on reprocessing of n-fuel

New Delhi: Sometime over the coming fortnight India and the United States will meet at Vienna to settle the much-awaited "Arrangements and Procedures" agreement on reprocessing spent nuclear fuel of American origin. Under the 123 Agreement with the United States, India has to establish a new national facility dedicated to reprocessing nuclear material under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

An Indo-US agreement on 'Arrangements and Procedures' will allow such reprocessing to take place at this new facility.

Indian Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and US officials have already held a first round of consultations on 'Arrangements and Procedures' on reprocessing of spent fuel of American origin on Indian soil towards the end of July this year.

Clinching this particular agreement is critical to initiating interactions in the nuclear field at a commercial level, and also for operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal. For US commercial nuclear suppliers any delay in concluding talks will only mean ceding further ground to French and Russian companies who are already far ahead in sealing agreements and contracts with India's Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL).

A potential sticking point may be Indian insistence on retaining ''...upfront sovereign rights in whatever we do, including reprocessing," as DAE officials had put it after the first round of talks at Vienna.

The July-talks in Vienna were "very surprising for both the sides," reports had then suggested.

Indian DAE officials did say the two sides had made "good progress" in the first round of discussions and were optimistic that agreement could be clinched "in a couple of months."

The NPCIL is mulling setting aside two coastal sites in the country as US reactor parks - those at Shrikulam district in coastal Andhra Pradesh and near Alang in Gujarat.