India Nuclear News And Discussion

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 09 Jun 2011 13:41

Interesting nuggets..Kudunkulum 3 and 4 nearing conclusion...
http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/09/stories ... 361100.htm

Interestingly
1. Two more "unsafe" LWRs from Russia..
2. The Nuke Liability Act provisions are being "accounted for" through "markup" in prices!

On the second, public sector monopoly on operator and the nuke liability act together has meant that the Indian govt (rather, the Indian people) needs to pay more! And then some of our anti-nuke worthies will complain "oh God, nuke is expensive"...

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 09 Jun 2011 19:26

^^^ GOI could have simply assumed liability.

Instead we have this twisted method, in which the supplier assumes partial liability and charges GOI more money in order to do so.

There is no winner in this except one: Insurance companies in Gora land, probably Lloyds of London are laughing their way to the bank -- wait they probably own the bank too

Mera Bharat Mahan! Hamarae Neta-jis Geniacs!!

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 09 Jun 2011 19:28

One minor advantage, the hidden costs of Nuke power are partially uncovered up front and can go into project costs

If the full costs were suitably built in, all the hidden costs would be truly exposed.

Ah well, thank god for tender mercies.

JwalaMukhi · Post by **JwalaMukhi** » 09 Jun 2011 21:38

Sanku wrote:
harbans wrote:Amit ji i had said that long back in this discussion. But some folks were dismissive of the environmental aspect and said it's a Western thing.
Such as this perhaps?

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Clima ... am/801199/

Declaring that “science is politics in climate change; climate science is politics”, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday urged Indian scientists to undertake more studies and publish them vigorously to prevent India and other developing countries from being “led by our noses by Western (climate) scientists who have less of a scientific agenda and more of a political agenda”.

Well, as the funding blows so will the hysteria about envy-ronment. It was not long ago Carbon dioxide was sacred compound, food of plants yada yada. A few decades back scientists were thinking of painting stuff with "black soot" to address "global cooling". Now, all of sudden carbon dioxide is the fall guy. Misplaced.
Because carbon dioxide is not the major greenhouse gas. of course, drum rolls please - it is water vapour. But climate models are currently based on carbon dioxide.
Anyways, nuclear energy needs no crutches of riding on environmental case. Irrespective of environmental bogey, denying or replacing coal is just a pink elephant. It will be ploy to keep turd worlders on guilt trip and to divert huge amount of economic value towards mega govt controlled projects.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 09 Jun 2011 21:58

The average residence time of a water molecule in the atmosphere is only about nine days, compared to years or centuries for other greenhouse gases such as CH4 and CO2.

Residence time in the atmosphere is important along with other correlated effects. Just check wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas

A very easy read and well written.
Common Climate Misconceptions -The Water Vapor Feedback

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 09 Jun 2011 23:26

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=72611

NDMA will be conducting a Mock Drill at the Tarapur Nuclear facility in order to assess the capability of the District administration to deal with an off-site emergency. The two-day programme beginning tomorrow will commence with a Workshop, which will also include a table-top exercise on the conduct of the mock drill. The Workshop will be inaugurated by Shri M. Shashidhar Reddy, Vice Chairman of NDMA. Shri B. Bhattacharjee and Shri J.K. Sinha, Member, NDMA will also speak on important aspects of response preparedness including the Incident Response System.

While the Maharashtra Chief Secretary will attend the Workshop, the other State Government officials including Distt Magistrate, the Supdt of Police, Thane will make presentations on their preparedness to counter such nuclear emergencies. This will be followed by a Mock Drill on 11 June involving all stakeholders – NDRF/Police, Civil Defence, Home Guard and other responders who will show their capability and readiness to counter Nuclear and Radiological Emergencies. The gaps identified in coordination and response preparedness will be addressed by all concerned subsequently.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 10 Jun 2011 01:35

Bade and others - For anyone interested, this is a very good document for leaning/teaching about climate change issues.. Very readable ..No exaggeration either way..Highly recommend it.
http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/Physics1 ... limate.htm

Meanwhile from Hindu
Russia's Rosatom to join hands with Indian firms

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 10 Jun 2011 21:57

37 Years ago, a news clip...

A blast from the past ..

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 11 Jun 2011 21:38

NRAI to be introduced in next parliament session: Menon

National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon today said a bill to create the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of India will be tabled in the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament.

NRAI will be an “independent and autonomous organisation” on nuclear issues, he said.

Emphasising the “outstanding safety performance in the 375 reactor years” in India, Menon said nuclear energy remained an economical source of clean energy.

“NRAI will be similar to Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, but it will function outside the control of the Atomic Energy Commission. But, we don't know whether it will function directly under the Prime Minister,” a senior official of the Department of Atomic Energy, said

Meanwhile, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Srikumar Banerjee said the first reactor at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant would go critical by August this year.

Asked why Kudankulam reactors were missing many deadlines for going critical, he said, “There were some issues with the cable layout. There was some fault in the cables. By August this year, the first reactor should go critical and by March 2012 the second reactor should go critical.”

“Fuel from Russia is not the problem. We have already got the fuel and it is in Kudankulam,” Banerjee said.

Somehow this news seems to have been overlooked by eminences

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 11 Jun 2011 21:44

Gerard wrote:Japan seeks India's cooperation on nuclear safety

Interesting bit from Gerard's news

After battling one of the worst nuclear disasters in March this year, Japan today offered to cooperate with India on improving the safety of atomic reactors.

Following the radiation leakage at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant in the north-eastern part of the country after the tsunami-earthquake of early March, Japan is re-looking at its energy policy, Japan's Deputy Minister (Economy), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Shinichi Nishimiya said here.

He said 'safe' nuclear power, clean fossil fuel, renewables and energy conservation would be the hallmarks of the Japanese new policy.

"In all four sectors, there is scope for bilateral cooperation between our two countries," he told reporters on the sidelines of a Ficci function.

Japan had refused to consider Indian position on Nuclear deal. Of course now that their energy policy have been thoroughly exposed they would seek "Excellent" safety practices as vindicated by Mr Menon's observation. But the emphasis of "Safe" seems to imply otherwise.

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 12 Jun 2011 08:45

NRAI is welcome news. However, the question in India is always about how to populate a committee. The Lokpal bill fiasco is a good parallel. I will wait and see how the NRAI is constituted before passing judgment.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 12 Jun 2011 10:37

Amber G. wrote:37 Years ago, a news clip...
A blast from the past ..

Check the bottom for the news clip saying Sethna that they will do another 2nd test to get more data if required

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 12 Jun 2011 18:43

^^^ See this : This
Kaul tells UN, not a single ounce of Canadian or US Pu was used, and if they stop aid, so be it, it's not going to stop what India needs to do. He also mentions that way back in July 1971 IG had said that publicly.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 12 Jun 2011 22:17

GP, Somnath et al -
Is NRAI similar to NRC?

Meanwhile those interested in public policy may be interested in the global snap poll regarding aam janta's views on nuclear power issues.

If you have not seen it, Here is the link

You may like to check out the poll results for India.. before and after Japan Tsunami.
>>>> From summary:
A "global snap poll" of more than 34,000 people in 47 countries around the world indicates that those in support of nuclear energy still outnumber those opposed, despite the Fukushima accident.

The poll was conducted by WIN-Gallup International between 21 March and 10 April 2011 Prior to the 11 March earthquake and tsunami, some 57% said they held favourable views on nuclear energy, while 32% held unfavourable views. Following the accident, 49% of people said they favoured nuclear energy, while those opposing it numbered 43%.

For India the result shown in the poll changed from 58/17 (Fav-unFav=41) to 49/35 (Fav-unFav=14)

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 12 Jun 2011 22:25

From Carnegie Endowment:
How will plans be affected in India (and china)
One can go go and read the article from the top, it has lot of other technical information.

China's reaction, (for not giving up nuclear power) is given by an interesting quote from an official ( Tian Jiashu, the Environmental Protection Ministry's nuclear safety director)

We're not going to stop eating for fear of choking.

(A sentiment not too different from our own AEC Chairman)

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 15 Jun 2011 20:51

GuruPrabhu, Can you think up some basic requirements for a low cost radiation detector/monitor for people? The loose nooks and Fukushima issue is pertrubating lot of folks.
A one or two page summary in the GDF please.

harbans · Post by **harbans** » 15 Jun 2011 20:59

Extremely pertinent to this thread. All 8 parts a must see, this is the start Part 1 of 8:

The Most IMPORTANT Video you will ever see

(Explains why resources are limited..and fallacies in thinking we have unlimited coal and so on..)

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 15 Jun 2011 21:36

^^^ Most people don't get exponential function.. for example, if one puts one penny ($.01) in bank with 4% interest (around the time 0 AD) and let it grow for, say, 2000 years.. how much will it worth..? $100? $1000? One million? One billion? more ? (Try figuring out the number before you look up the next line)

(The answer is, the money will be so large, that the interest credited in 1 second alone will be more than enough to pay trillion dollars to every person on earth (6 billion) .. ( that is just in one second ....)

This is why chain reactions give so much bang ...typical giga-boom (of the type people talk here) requires.. some 80-85 sequences.. (1 U splitting 2 U -splitting 4 U etc... .. Pu requires even less about 60)

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 16 Jun 2011 08:43

Amber G. wrote:GP, Somnath et al -
Is NRAI similar to NRC?

Prima facie, seems like that is the direction, though we dont have anything substantial in black-and-white on NRAI..BAsically, what Dr Gopalkrishnan et al have been asking for is a regime "independent" of the DAE, pretty similar to NRC...

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 18 Jun 2011 19:10

NSG all set to up-end India's clean waiver

US moves to get India into 3 exclusive n-clubs

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 18 Jun 2011 21:26

Gerard wrote:NSG all set to up-end India's clean waiver

It will be interesting to see what really happens at NSG..And how the cookie really crumbles for India on the ENR tech import point...Its been on the anvil since that G8 declaration in 2009 about having a "criteria based" approach to ENR tech export...

But since then, both Russia and France have publicly committed themselves to selling ENR tech to India!

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/167 ... ology.html
http://articles.economictimes.indiatime ... r-reactors

With Kudunkulum 3 and 4 under negotiation, and Jaitapur still on stream, money will hopefully talk

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 19 Jun 2011 01:26

Meanwhile ..
Germany eases norms to aid India's N-plants

India has been removed from the list of countries subject to national export control restrictions. Now, India will be treated by us just like any other EU country," German Ambassador Thomas Matussek said.
....
One week before the Chancellor's visit to India, Germany modified its export control legislation vis-a-vis India. We have repealed our restrictions for the export of goods for nuclear power plants," Matussek said.

Also
India, Canada to complete ratification of nuclear-deal soon

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 19 Jun 2011 02:46

http://www.thehindu.com/news/the-india- ... epage=true

NSG all set to up-end India's clean waiver

Barring last minute objections, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is set to approve new guidelines for the transfer of “sensitive” nuclear material that will do undo the hard fought “clean” waiver India obtained in 2008 from the cartel's restrictive export rules.

At stake is India's ability to buy enrichment and reprocessing technology and equipment (ENR) from NSG members. Under the terms of a landmark September 2008 agreement, the NSG waived its catch-all requirement of full-scope safeguards as a condition for supply in exchange for a concrete set of non-proliferation commitments by the Indian side. This agreement means NSG members are allowed to sell any nuclear equipment and material they want, including ENR, to India despite the fact that it does not allow international supervision over all its nuclear activities and is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Two months after that waiver — a product of the July 2005 Indo-U.S. agreement in which Washington committed itself to “work with friends and allies to adjust international regimes to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation and trade with India” — the Bush administration threw its weight behind a bad-faith effort to remove ENR equipment and technology from the purview of the NSG-India bargain.

It did so at least partly in order to keep a promise Condoleezza Rice made to the influential Congressman Howard Berman during the passage of the Hyde Act — that if Congress were to approve the proposal for nuclear commerce with India, the administration would get the NSG to ban the sale of ENR equipment to countries that had not signed the NPT.

Thus, under the proposed new guidelines as framed by the NSG in November 2008, ENR transfers will be allowed only if the recipient state fulfils a number of objective and subjective criteria. Top of the list is the requirement of NPT membership and full-scope safeguards. Since India is the only country outside of the NPT that NSG members are allowed to sell nuclear material to in the first place, it is obvious that these two criteria are aimed exclusively at India.

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy ... 112284.ece

Diplomats from several countries, who spoke on condition on anonymity, said the United States, India and China were among the countries that had worked to water down the final document.

For example, the U.S. tried -- unsuccessfully -- to prevent reference to an action plan that Director General Amano will be tasked to formulate by September.

The final text does not propose to make binding IAEA safety missions and standards, which are currently voluntary for member states.

“We are not against making changes,” an Indian diplomat said, explaining that his country thinks it is too early to take decisions before it is fully understood what went wrong in Fukushima.

A Western official said it was not fair to single out the U.S., since there was no broad international push yet for binding and enforceable international safety rules, an argument shared by the Indian diplomat.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110619/main1.htm

n the interview to The Tribune, the AEC chief revealed that an intensive review was done of all the existing nuclear plants by the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC), the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and BARC. After getting the opinions from all these institutions the NPC was in the process of implementing the recommendations. Among the measures suggested and already have been implemented is providing mobile diesel generation units as an additional back up for power plants. The access roads to each of these plants were reviewed and expanded wherever necessary. “The focus was particularly on redundancy in back-up power supply and augmenting water supply for cooling to take out excess heat if required,” Banerjee said.

Responding to criticism that the AERB, the country’s premier nuclear safety board, is far from independent as it has to report to the Atomic Energy Commission, Banerjee said that the Prime Minister has already announced the setting up of an independent nuclear regulatory authority. He told The Tribune: “I am not saying that the AERB is not independent; it is independent. But the AERB is created by an executive order. Now it is important that it should get a statutory status-that it is formed by an Act of Parliament. The Prime Minister has announced that a new Act would be introduced in the forthcoming monsoon session to facilitate this.”

Banerjee revealed that the Department of Atomic Energy is working on the draft of the Act that will ensure that the new regulatory body would be independent of the Atomic Energy Commission. He said: “It is an important step because apart from the legal status, it will be broadening its activity and can receive technical support from different organisations. Its activities will be transparent. We have nothing to hide. Let it be out in the open.”

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_in ... up_1547157

India, on Monday moved a step closer to joining the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). After years of negotiations and persuasion, the NSG agreed to discuss India’s case for full membership as a Specific Agenda during its plenary meeting in the third week of June. India, with explicit US support has pipped Pakistan to be on the agenda, even though China was backing the latter.

The membership listing followed an outreach meeting between India and the NSG Troika comprising The Netherlands, New Zealand and Hungary that took place at The Hague on Monday. The Indian delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao.

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 19 Jun 2011 10:34

X-posting frm the Indo-Us thread..

Hari Seldon wrote:(To be fair though even GWB during the honeymoony 123 negotiations period was adamant about not conceding the ENR thingy, though).

The ENR bit was never really resolved fully...What came out finally was that the US would never sell ENR tech to us, but will not prevent others from selling it either..We were quite ok with that...

The usual NPA sources are a bit abuzz with the meeting coming up, but really not with India...Seems the main jokers in the pack of the new ENR guidelines are the Latam countries as well as South Africa..

http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/archiv ... -transfers

This ruckus on the "Adiitional Protocol" was created last years as wel, and didnt get passed primarily because of opposition from these countries...

wig · Post by **wig** » 19 Jun 2011 10:51

Dr. Srikumar Banerjee, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission responds to various queries in this interview pubished in the tribune of chandigarh,
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110619/edit.htm#1
excerpts

So far, how has the US nuclear deal helped in terms of India's power programme?

So far what it has done is that it has enabled us to import some uranium. Now you may ask while we say that our technology is good why then do we need to import reactors from other countries? The answer is that if you want to have the kind of growth in energy supply needed, you cannot do that purely on the basis of indigenous capability because the Indian industry capacity is not there. There is a misconception that it is a deal with only the USA. It is not so. It's more an opening up of the nuclear commerce for India. Before the deal there was a total embargo. There was no technology, no material, no exchanges right from 1974. (After India's first nuclear explosion). Sometimes these countries used to say that you cannot get even a paper clip from us. We have suffered for 35 years in complete isolation. Now that isolation is broken by the nuclear pact without sacrificing our strategic programme. This was a major achievement of the nuclear deal.

Does the deal also allow us to import enrichment and reprocessing technology from these countries?

Strictly speaking there is a catch in that. In some of the bilateral documents, it is said that yes, we can get technology in all areas. But then there are some discussions and disputes going on in some countries about this. We are not very keen on cent per cent technology from the outside. Our own technology is there. But as it has been mentioned in some bilateral documents that we are enjoying a full-fledged technology partnership in all areas then why should we not be allowed to have it? But otherwise in terms of both for reprocessing and enrichment technology, India has its own and we can depend on our own.

wig · Post by **wig** » 19 Jun 2011 10:57

on our nuclear deterence

Air Marshal KJ Mathews, Commander-in-Chief of the Delhi-based tri-services outfit Strategic Forces Command (SFC), said yesterday that “a lot of work is going on” to keep the country in readiness to use its nuclear arsenal in case the need arose.

and then

Noting the scepticism prevailing among certain sections of the people, including the defence forces, about the country’s nuclear capability, the SFC chief said: “I must assure you that a lot of work is going on as far as our credible minimum deterrence is concerned. We are way ahead and way up than our adversaries.”

Mathews told journalists that “weaponisation” of capabilities depended on the government, which acted upon the views of “a set of advisers” in such matters. He, however, refused to dwell further on the subject saying it was a “dangerous” territory.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110619/nation.htm#9

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 19 Jun 2011 11:11

wig wrote:Dr. Srikumar Banerjee, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission responds to various queries in this interview pubished in the tribune of chandigarh,
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110619/edit.htm#1

Good interview, as usual with Dr Bannerjee - he has none of the (weapons-related) charisma of his predecesors, but is extremely media savvy - exudes a feeling of reassurance..Generally, given the govt's pathetic track record on communciations, the nuclear issue has been managed fantastically well all round - and Srikumar Bannerjee plays no mean part in that..

A couple of more good points he made..

Also let me say that Germany had said they would phase out their nuclear plants almost 40 years ago but haven't done it so far. They can also import power from Eastern Europe which has plenty of nuclear plants. UK is seriously expanding their nuclear power capacity after North Sea oil production has dipped. Even Saudi Arabia is planning to set up nuclear plants.

Not just East Europe, but also France...I said here before, Frau Merkel had an intimate tet-e-tet with the junior Thackrey during her visit

Also, while now we contribute 5 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, if we rely on coal that would grow to almost 40 to 50 per cent of the world's CO2 emission. We will need to reduce our emissions. Apart from that the huge bill for importing coal to meet our needs could cripple our economy. Solar fuel is okay for distributed energy needs for villages and agriculture but cannot support a metropolitan grid requirement or for manufacturing industry.

Lastly, on enrichment, I think this is quite insightful..

We are not very keen on cent per cent technology from the outside. Our own technology is there. But as it has been mentioned in some bilateral documents that we are enjoying a full-fledged technology partnership in all areas then why should we not be allowed to have it? But otherwise in terms of both for reprocessing and enrichment technology, India has its own and we can depend on our own.

Maybe GP, Amber G et al can describe better, what is the status of India's own ENR tech, and how does imports help it along?

Neshant · Post by **Neshant** » 19 Jun 2011 14:51

i don't know if its practical but how about putting these nuke reactors on an island and running the cables undersea to the mainland.

i get uneasy when i think of the potential hazards that could set India back a good 20 yrs if not more development wise if something went wrong.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 19 Jun 2011 18:08

somnath wrote:This ruckus on the "Adiitional Protocol" was created last years as wel, and didnt get passed primarily because of opposition from these countries...

India has an Additional Protocol with the IAEA. Not to be confused with the Additional Protocol

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 20 Jun 2011 00:20

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA AND THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY FOR THE APPLICATION OF SAFEGUARDS TO CIVILIAN NUCLEAR FACILITIES

http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Docume ... irc754.pdf
http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Docume ... c754a1.pdf
http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Docume ... c754a2.pdf
http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Docume ... c754a3.pdf

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 20 Jun 2011 03:20

Thanks Wig for the nice interview of Sri Srikumar Banerjee.

FWIW, some may find this useful (a little dated but technically good)
MIT's site's report on Fuel Cycle ..
Here is:
Executive Summary

Full report can be loaded from:
http://web.mit.edu/mitei/research/studi ... ycle.shtml

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 20 Jun 2011 06:11

Gerard wrote:India has an Additional Protocol with the IAEA. Not to be confused with the Additional Protocol

Of course...I was referring to the absence/presence of the AP for Brazil, Argentina w.r.t transfer of ENR tech...

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 20 Jun 2011 09:24

In 2005, Indian scientists completed successfully the criticality benchmarking of the 30 kilowatt KAMINI research reactor (the only U-233 fuelled reactor operating in the world) operating at Kalpakkam which was completed, peer reviewed and published in the International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments (ICSBEP).

“Interestingly after India joined the select band of countries and contributed Kamini Benchmark, the Indian scientists are able to access all the benchmark specifications for over 4,400 experimental benchmark documents of other countries,” Mr. Ganesan added.

In 2008, the international benchmarking of PURNIMA-II (Uranium 233-nitrate solution) reactor has been completed and already accepted by the IAEA and US department of Energy.

Presently, India has undertaken the international benchmarking procedures for the experimental reactor PURNIMA-I. The benchmarking of PURNIMA-I, India’s first fast reactor fuelled with plutonium oxide that went critical in 1972 was completed recently and critical international peer review is in progress.

“The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality safety engineers to validate calculation techniques safety margins for operations with fissile material,” he added.

/the hindu

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 20 Jun 2011 11:50

somnath wrote:Maybe GP, Amber G et al can describe better, what is the status of India's own ENR tech, and how does imports help it along?

Somnath,

my apologies, I have been staying away from this thread. To answer your question, details of Indian ENR tech are not in the public domain.

It is widely quoted that India uses a PUREX process to extract Poo from PHWR/research reactors and variants of it to reprocess spent carbide and oxide fuels from FBTR. No details of efficiency etc are mentioned, so it is not surprising that there is interest in importing tech/process from the west.

In the case of U-enrichment, even less is known. Halfbright types have tried to estimate SWU for RMP, but it is all pure guesswork. Again, interest in importing tech is justified, regardless of indigenous capabilities -- one can always learn from other developments in technology.

IMO, importing tech is very useful but not crucial. It is a good test case for exposing the west's perfidy.

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 21 Jun 2011 17:52

For what is worth, Indians (at least "elite", online-accessed ones) are in favour of nuke power..
http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease ... 189889.htm

Sriman · Post by **Sriman** » 21 Jun 2011 20:28

Kudankulam reactor designers among those killed in Russia aircrash

http://www.thehindu.com/news/article2122584.ece

Three top officials of Russia’s main nuclear reactor design company, Gidropress, were killed in the aircrash along with two other senior nuclear engineers. Gidropress CEO and Designer General Sergei Ryzhov, Deputy CEO and Chief Designer Gennady Banyuk and Chief Designer Nikolai Trunov were all involved in designing two VVER-1000 (Version V-412) nuclear reactors for the the first stage of the Kudankulam power project in Tamilnadu. Another four reactors of this type are to be built at Kudankulam under second and third stages of the plant’s expansion.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 21 Jun 2011 20:45

^^ Somnath - You may have also seen the snap poll in other countries (I posted it around June 12, in this thread)..

Wrt to ENR as GP said, most of ENR tech is not in the public domain -- But IMO, as said before, lot of Indian Physicists and engineers are quite knowledgeable and what is needed will be developed/gotten when time comes. Some of the pioneering work done in this field has involved quite a few Indian (or Indian origin) scientists.

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 22 Jun 2011 23:53

Some updates on that NSG meeting at the Hague...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 944450.cms

The US has proposed that adherence to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) need not be a "pre-requisite" for India's membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), but a suggestion, or a "factor to be considered". If this finds broader acceptance within the NSG, India's entry could become easier.

On the ENR question..

However, talking to journalists on Tuesday, visiting US assistant secretary of state Robert Blake said the Obama administration remained fully committed to the nuclear deal. The discussions underway (on ENR exports), he said, would not undermine the US commitment. There is still no consensus on the ENR issue in NSG though, and sources said this was unlikely to happen soon.

Manish_Sharma · Post by **Manish_Sharma** » 23 Jun 2011 08:47

I don't visit this thread much as most of the things go above my head, just came across this article and posting its link here not sure how much is correct:

http://www.samachar.com/NSG-all-set-to- ... ahjfg.html

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 23 Jun 2011 09:49

Manish_Sharma wrote:I don't visit this thread much as most of the things go above my head, just came across this article and posting its link here not sure how much is correct:

http://www.samachar.com/NSG-all-set-to- ... ahjfg.html

Sir-ji, at least you could, a) check if this was already posted and b) watch the font inflation.