[ RadSafe ] U.S. Inks Nuclear Reprocessing Deal With India

Fri Aug 6 17:04:26 CDT 2010

Why is Franz Schoenhofer allowed to post ot RADSAFE? Please restrict this
person from posting. He does not post anything constructive.

2010/8/6 Franz Schönhofer <franz.schoenhofer at chello.at>

> Dear Clayton and RADSAFErs,
>
> Reading the news you distribute I just wonder whether I have been always in
> a dream - I thought that there were some international treaties about the
> proliferation of nuclear material, nuclear technology etc. etc. I do not
> have the details about this treaty and am to lazy to look after them.
>
> Similar treaties were used by the USA to accuse Iraq for breaching these
> international treaties and therefore "justifying" the invasion which keeps
> the world still busy and resulted up to now in hundreds of thousands of
> casualties.
>
> However this message is revealing, that obviously international treaties
> are
> binding for all nations on earth - except the USA.....
>
> Please give me a reasonable explanation or flame me for being anti-American
> - better Anti-US!
>
> Franz
>
> Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
> MinRat i.R.
> Habicherg. 31/7
> A-1160 Wien/Vienna
> AUSTRIA
>
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] Im Auftrag von Clayton J
> Bradt
> Gesendet: Montag, 02. August 2010 21:52
> An: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> Betreff: [ RadSafe ] U.S. Inks Nuclear Reprocessing Deal With India
>
> U.S. Inks Nuclear Reprocessing Deal With India
>
> Monday, Aug. 2, 2010
>
> India and the United States on Friday inked a deal that would permit the
> nuclear-armed South Asian nation to reprocess used U.S.-supplied nuclear
> fuel as part of a broader bilateral trade cooperation agreement, Agence
> France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 2).
>
> The latest agreement demonstrates the Obama administration's "strong
> commitment to building successfully on the landmark U.S.-India Civil
> Nuclear Cooperation Initiative and is a prerequisite for U.S. nuclear fuel
> suppliers to conduct business with India," the State Department said in a
> release.
>
> U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns and
> Indian Ambassador to the United States Meera Shankar signed the
> reprocessing deal. Washington previously had only signed such agreements
> with Japan and European Union states.
>
> The comprehensive deal on trade in atomic material and equipment was
> signed in 2008 during the Bush administration. However, U.S. firms have
> yet to begin doing nuclear business in India as Washington and New Delhi
> continued to hammer out the last particulars of the agreement. During that
> time, French and Russian atomic companies have rushed to enter India's
> expanding nuclear power market.
>
> The recycling of used U.S. nuclear material is to take place at a new
> plant under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the State
> Department said (Agence France-Presse/Google News, July 31).
>
> State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said "today marks one of the final
> steps in terms of implementation of the U.S.-India Civilian Nuclear
> Cooperation Agreement," the Hindustan Times reported.
>
> New Delhi and Washington would like to see all remaining barriers to full
> implementation of the deal dealt with prior to President Barack Obama's
> trip to India in November (Anirudh Bhattacharyya, Hindustan Times I, Aug.
> 1).
>
> The last major hurdle to the deal is Indian nuclear liability legislation
> that limits how much foreign firms can be required to pay out following an
> atomic disaster at one of their plants. A bill on the matter has been held
> up in India's Parliament due to strong criticism from opposition lawmakers
> concerned the measure does not adequately account for the interests of
> potential Indian victims. Without a liability cap, though, U.S. firms are
> unable to secure insurance to operate in the South Asian nation.
>
> In order to secure passage of the bill before Obama's trip, sources said
> there is a chance of increasing the financial damages for which nuclear
> plant operators could be held liable. Liability is currently set at less
> than $110 million the Times reported.
>
> The legislation could also be amended to make the details of agreements
> between plant operators and nuclear material suppliers more open to public
> scrutiny, the sources said.
>
> India's coalition government is optimistic these tweaks to the bill would
> secure enough votes to win parliamentary approval.
>
> A senior opposition lawmaker, however, indicated there were additional
> points of contention to be addressed. "The cap apart, there are issues
> regarding environment and public health to be addressed. And the argument
> that American life is more precious than Indian life is not acceptable,"
> the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said (Jayanth Jacob, Hindustan Times II,
> Aug. 1).
> ********************************
> Let's see now.  We don't reprocess nuclear fuel here in the US because the
> danger of diversion of plutonium for weapons is too great.  So we build a
> reprocessing plant in India instead where the danger of diversion is
> lower?
>
> Clayton Bradt
> dutchbradt at hughes.net
>
>
>
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