Recently we have witnessed the visit of the US president Barrack Obama as the chief guest on our 66th republic day celebration. This was the first time that any US president was the chief guest of our national celebration. Lots of bonhomie and friendship were seen from both the sides. The visit was very important for India from strategic point of view that a strong relationship with US may help to constrain china towards its expansionary border policy. Many deals were done ranging from the Defence technology transfer agreement to the civil nuclear agreemment.
The civil nuclear agreement was the brainchild of the PM Manmohan Singh. Ironically the BJP was opposing it when congress initiated it due to some compromises India have to show by signing this agreement. But the same BJP govt. has finally concluded the bill to its final goal for good. The two hiccups the nuclear liability law and the inspection of nuclear facilities by various countries was mitigated nicely. Though the dias is completely in the hand of the US companies like Westinghouse and GE, we expect a positive outcome.
The resounding part of this agreement is that it is done under the 123 agreement and the Hyde act. So what is 123 agreement and the Hyde act , let's look at it one by one.
123 Agreement- It is a legislation in the United States constitution against the prevention of the nuclear weapon act. The article 123 of this act says the US can only go for Civil nuclear agreement with those countries which have signed the NPT ( Non- Proliferation Treaty) and CTBT ( Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty). According to NPT only the members of the UNSC ( US, France, China, Britain and Russia) can have the nuclear weapons. This agreement is very discriminatory in itself and that's why India is neither signatory of NPT nor CTBT. Apart from India , Pakistan and Israel are also not the signatory of NPT.
As the India is not the signatory of NPT, according the section 123 of the US legislation, it was not possible for US to have a civil- nuclear agreement with India. But this is problem was settled by passing an act proposed by the congressman Hyde, which gives a special concession only for India.
The Hyde Act- According to this act US can have civil- nuclear agreement with India. It can transfer its nuclear technology and material to India on the account of frequent verification and checking of the nuclear facilities in India. The US will have to insure that the technology supplied is not used for the purpose of the nuclear weapon.
No doubt the agreement has open the door for India to have the prospect of clean nuclear energy which is the foremost requirement of the country for realising its economic growth and elimination of its extreme poverty.
There is something wrong with nuclear technology (on safety issue), USA has not opened any nuclear power plant after 2012, developed countries like France is moving away from it. we have already seen what a catastrophic disaster it can do in Japan ......... Just dont know why indian politician are finding it so lucrative technology when other western countries have rejected it.
ReplyDeleteAbhishek, no one can deny the fact that nuclear technology is very risky and if a country have other sources of energy they shouldn't use it. The point is that we need a huge amount of energy in upcoming 20-30 years to achieve our goal for the economic growth and considering the contemporary sources/ technology available to us nuclear energy is the better one( based on cost benefit analysis). otherwise we can't let ourselves in doldrum of extreme poverty.
ReplyDeletewhen we can use the solar energy ( as in gujrat), wind energy (as in rajasthan), a lot of potential in hydroelectricity and other renewable form of energy, why too focus on such a risky matter, when the prospect of nuclear energy is still not so clear.
ReplyDeleteOn cost benefit analysis jaitapur nuclear power plant situated in mahrastra was initally providing electricity at cost of Rs9.12/ unit, after 3 year of negoatiation with france both side has now agreed on Rs6/ unit, which is still high.
Population density in india is very high and we cannot risk having other mass manmade tragedy like bhopal gas.
can we fulfill all our energy needs by using solar and wind energy????? no. aren't we using hydroelectricity???? yes we are... see all these other forms of energy is not easily tapable as you think... it needs a very sophisticated and high end technology. Considering the risk factor.. the technology has advanced upto the scale that we will not let the disaster happen... citing the fukushima incident... despite the earquake and tsunami. the tragedy was controlled successfully. don't forget that france is still using nuclear technology for its energy requirement.. we havn't seen any tragedy there...
ReplyDeleteIt's better to take optimum risk rather than being grappled with the disease of poverty for the whole lifetime
There are times to enter in every field, nuclear energy was risk worth taken around 2000 by world ..... but india lacked that phase , now i am saying that it is not the time to switch over our energy needs to nuclear, when whole world is switching over to another renewable source of energy(definitely they see a potential in it)...clearly where do we see ourselves after 30 year is question- still surviving on nuclear energy or renewable energy .. look if we today invest our money into nuclear energy, which is in declinig phase (most of the devloped countries are opting out of it, even the france ) when we are going to shift to renewable source of energy..... when countries like germany are investing in to it having clear cut vision of producing 80% electricity via renewable source of energy by 2050.
ReplyDeletePs:- India is over populated country,with heavy corruption (ranging in officials, engineers, contractors, builders) which make it more prone to nuclear tragedy if any nuclear tragedy happens it will kill and effect many more than what it did in japan and other areas.