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

Sat Aug 7 00:40:47 CDT 2010

Franz,

Sometimes I think you spend the entire day down at the Augustiner, and after
several liters of mediocre swill you decide to hop on Radsafe.  You should
try an American microbrew.  The brews are very complex and leave one only
wishing he could have another.

I picture you sitting in your very old bathrobe and slippers while you revel
at the idea of being an American.  It is obvious you have met countless
confident and successful Americans who you envy to no end.

You too, Franz could be an American.  I am sure the U.S. would consider
granting you dual citizenship--but only under one condition.

You would have to contribute something POSITIVE.  And you might have to
separate your personal inadequacies and addictions from your contributions,
so on second thought that is not possible.

I invite you to come to America more Franz.  Americans even make jaeger
schnitzel better than Austrians.

Regards,
Chris

2010/8/7 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
>
>
>
> IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential
> or sensitive information which is, or may be, legally privileged or
> otherwise protected by law from further disclosure. It is intended only for
> the addressee. If you received this in error or from someone who was not
> authorized to send it to you, please do not distribute, copy or use it or
> any attachments. Please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and
> delete this from your system. Thank you for your cooperation.
>
> _______________________________________________
> You are currently subscribed to the RadSafe mailing list
>
> Before posting a message to RadSafe be sure to have read and understood the
> RadSafe rules. These can be found at:
> http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html
>
> For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings
> visit:
> http://health.phys.iit.edu
>
> _______________________________________________
> You are currently subscribed to the RadSafe mailing list
>
> Before posting a message to RadSafe be sure to have read and understood the
> RadSafe rules. These can be found at:
> http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html
>
> For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings
> visit: http://health.phys.iit.edu
>