The Hindu : Front Page : Dual use technologies will now be available, says Sibal

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Tuesday, Sep 09, 2008
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Dual use technologies will now be available, says Sibal

Special Correspondent

NSG waiver recognises role of nuclear energy in fighting climate change

Waiver will open up new global trade, research opportunities: Minister
Thorium will be included in closed nuclear fuel cycle: R. Chidambaram

CHENNAI: The Nuclear Suppliers Group’s waiver for India is as much about the freedom of knowledge and dual-use spinoffs as it is about the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said here on Monday.

The end of the embargo would have an impact beyond the civilian nuclear technology sector, as it would also end the restriction of India’s access to various other technologies, he told journalists after the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras’ golden jubilee celebrations of Indo-German cooperation in higher education.

The dual use technologies — which could be used for both civilian and military purposes — would now be available to India from any country which wanted to sell it, Mr. Sibal insisted, reminding journalists that “there are many countries which do not have the legal restrictions the U.S. has.” These technologies were available from the private sector, he pointed out. He listed defence, space, avionics, biomedical research and agriculture as some of the areas that would benefit by the opening up of dual use restrictions that he insisted was an inevitable part of the waiver.

Earlier, speaking at the golden jubilee event, Mr. Sibal listed the opening up of new global trade and research opportunities, as well as the recognition of the role of nuclear energy in fighting climate change and energy security as key elements of the historic nature of the waiver.

German Education and Research Minister Annette Schavan supports Mr. Sibal’s prescription of nuclear power to fight climate change, even if her government does not. Germany officially renounced nuclear power in 2000 and pledged to phase out its nuclear power situations, but Ms. Schavan says the issue is hotly debated. “As the Minister for Research, I am convinced that this decision taken in the 1990s will have to be reconsidered and we will have to extend the life of those [nuclear] power plants, the more so if we ask for a solution to the global problem of climate change. I believe a global solution without nuclear energy will not work out,” she said.

R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Union government and Chairman of the IIT-M, said India would play a key role in using nuclear technology to fight climate change. For nuclear power to be a sustainable mitigating technology, the nuclear fuel cycle must be closed and India was one of the few countries doing that, with a 500-MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor coming up at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu. In the long-term, thorium — of which India has the world’s largest reserves — would be included in the closed nuclear fuel cycle, he said.

Mr. Sibal also addressed concerns over the risk of disrupted fuel supply in the event of a nuclear test. Indian reactors would be put under safeguards in phases till 2014 only when they were assured of fuel supply with a strategic reserve in place, he said.

“We will build up strategic reserves and if and when in the future, any tests are required to be done because of a changed geopolitical situation at that point of time, we will have a strategic reserve of fuel so that there is no problem of disruption.”

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