The Russian offer to set up a nuclear fuel facility in India does not involve transfer of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies, said former Atomic Energy Commission chief Anil Kakodkar.
Russia's Rosatom Nuclear Energy Corporation head Sergei Kiriyenko told an international nuclear forum in Moscow on Tuesday that Russia had reached agreement with India and several other countries to establish joint ventures on their territory for n-fuel manufacture. The statement prompted claims in some media that Russia was ready to share ENR technologies with India.
“The Russian proposal has nothing to do with the transfer of ENR technologies,” Mr. Kakodkar told The Hindu . He chaired a plenary session at the Atomexpo-2010 international forum held in Moscow on June 7-9.
Mr. Kakodkar said the nuclear fuel cycle involved several manufacturing stages and Russia offered to move some of these activities to those countries where it is building nuclear reactors.
“Basically Mr. Kiriyenko is offering to India the same thing he is offering to all other countries,” said the former Atomic Commission chief.
Mr. Kiriyenko made it clear his offer factored in international restrictions on the transfer of enrichment technologies.
“Taking into account strict restrictions on the transfer of many fuel cycle technologies that have dual use we are offering joint ventures to our partners that would involve moving certain processes in the fuel production to the territory of these countries. We have made corresponding agreements with Ukraine, India and many European countries,” he said.
The statement appears to put India in the category of countries under international restrictions for the supply of nuclear technologies. This would contradict earlier assurances by Russian officials (including Mr. Kiriyenko and former Ambassador to India Vyacheslav Trubnikov) that they saw no hurdles to the transfer of sensitive technologies to India following the 2008 nuclear export waiver to India by the international nuclear watchdogs and the signing of a broad-based Indo-Russian nuclear pact during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow last year.
Even so, Mr. Kakodkar finds the Russia offer useful.
“It is important from India's point of view to develop partnerships in all areas of nuclear supplies as this gives much more assurance with regard to the reliability of supplies,” he said.
Mr. Kakodkar also welcomed Mr. Kiriyenko's offer to India to join the international nuclear fuel facility Russia is setting up at Angarsk in Siberia and to take a stake in a uranium field in Russia.
