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US And India Identify Solutions To Salvage Nuclear Deal
Washington DC (AFP) Jul 18, 2007 The United States and India have identified possible solutions to issues hampering a final accord on a landmark bilateral civilian nuclear deal, the State Department said Wednesday. The two powers have been for two years trying to devise a comprehensive agreement under which the United States would provide nuclear technology and fuel after agreeing in principle to reverse three decades of sanctions. "I think they have clearly identified the issues, I think there are certainly possible solutions to both sides," said a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We'll see if we are able to bridge the difference," said the official after senior American and Indian officials entered their final day of talks in Washington. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also met Wednesday with Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, who together with National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan and Department of Atomic Energy Chairman Anil Kakodkar made up the high-powered Indian delegation. Narayanan met separately with US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley at the White House. "Certainly, there's no time like the present to reach a deal," said State Department spokeman Sean McCormack. The Indian officials were to meet Nicholas Burns, the US pointman to the nuclear talks, and Richard Boucher, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and central Asian affairs, later Wednesday in a bid to conclude the talks. McCormack refused to speak about the issues clouding the deal, saying "this is not an issue in which I do play-by-play analysis. "You know, we'll see where we are at the end of the day." Under the deal, India is to separate nuclear facilities for civilian and military use and set up a regime of international inspections in return for technology and nuclear fuel supplies. Despite several rounds of talks, India has stood fast against accepting any curbs on its reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. India also wants assurances that Washington will continue to supply fuel for its atomic plants in the event New Delhi conducts further nuclear weapons tests. Indian officials have reportedly proposed to set up a special unit to reprocess spent atomic fuel under international safeguards in a bid to break the impasse. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W. Bush, who laid the groundwork for the deal two years to the day on July 18, 2005, discussed the issue over the telephone last week. Last year, the US Congress approved the nuclear deal in principle and a bill to that effect was signed into law by Bush. It was subject to both sides crafting a comprehensive bilateral accord or "123 agreement" capturing all implementing aspects of the deal that has to be passed again by Congress. India also needs to sign an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and get the approval of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Source: Agence France-Presse Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Civil Nuclear Energy Science, Technology and News Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
Vattenfall Europe Chief Quits After German Nuclear Incidents
Berlin (AFP) Jul 18, 2007The head of Vattenfall Europe, an arm of Swedish energy giant Vattenfall, resigned Wednesday after a series of incidents, including a fire, at two of the group's German nuclear power plants. Vattenfall Europe chief Klaus Rauscher "has offered to step down from his position," the company said in a statement which named Hans-Juergen Cramer, a member of Vattenfall's German management, as acting head of the company's European activities. |
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