Article

2006-03-02 India-Pakistan

Rest Well Tonight: UN Approves US-India Nuke Deal

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Posted by Captain America 2006-03-02 14:09|| || Front Page|| [11140 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Seeing that China gave nukes to Pakistan and North Korea, that last sentence is the rankest hypocrisy.

Posted by Grunter 2006-03-02 14:46|| 2006-03-02 14:46|| Front Page Top

#2 Seeing that China gave nukes to Pakistan and North Korea...

And through them Iran, Libya, and God knows who else.

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2006-03-02 15:47|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2006-03-02 15:47|| Front Page Top

#3 This deal works in a bunch of different ways. First and foremost, it sets India up in a way similar to how Israel is set up. Israel has to defend itself from the Moslem world, India has to defend itself from China.

By allowing it to keep its weapons program off the table, this means that China won't know how many and how much nuclear nuclear weaponry India has, which would give China prickly heat if they were getting adventuresome in that direction.

Second, since their commercial production will be many times larger than their military production, this both forces it to be quality controlled to international standards and transparent with its production of weapons grade material and waste.

This is really good since nobody wants to see headlines about "The Indian Chernobyl".

Next, it is pretty obvious that the future for the major nations lies with large electrical grid nuclear power. If they do it on the table, it is always better than if they refuse to partner.

Finally, the US has an awful lot of nuclear fuel to sell. It was tremendously expensive to produce and we have immense stocks we would be glad to get rid of at a discount.

Posted by Anonymoose 2006-03-02 16:14|| 2006-03-02 16:14|| Front Page Top

#4 Don't you appreciate the irony here?

The UN is the proverbial cat chasing its tail over Iran nukes, but has the balls to "approve" what the US is doing (independently) with India.

Posted by Captain America 2006-03-02 17:25|| 2006-03-02 17:25|| Front Page Top

#5 The IAEA has a long history working in India.

Several Indian power reactors are under IAEA safeguards.
One of the Indian plutonium reprocessing plants is under occasional safeguards. Whenenver spent fuel from a safeguarded reactor is being processed the inspectors come in.

They now get to extend their oversight...

Posted by john 2006-03-02 17:51|| 2006-03-02 17:51|| Front Page Top

#6 Will that "overslight" extend the practice employed in Iran and pre-invasion Iraq?

Posted by Captain America 2006-03-02 18:15|| 2006-03-02 18:15|| Front Page Top

#7 IAEA inspections will be to ensure that no safeguarded material is diverted.
They will be limited to those facilities only.

Some Indian facilities may have reactors that are off limits. The inspector may look at reactor 1 and reactor 3 but reactor 2 is being used for weapon grade plutonium production and is off limits.

A rather different case than Iran or Iraq, both of which signed the NPT and must not have any military program.

Posted by john 2006-03-02 20:29|| 2006-03-02 20:29|| Front Page Top

#8 So it is a not a question about hide and seek (like in Iran or Iraq).

India has, and will continue to manufacture weapons. There is nothing for the IAEA to see with regard to this.

Anything not declared as civilian is military and these military sites cannot buy (a) fuel (b) safety equipment (c) componants. They will be off limits to inspections.

Most Indian R+D will be classified as military, not because it is but because they don't want IAEA folk around.

The truly sensitive stuff - the beryllium refining plant, the centrifuge cascades that make MEU fuel for the Indian Navy, the BARC complex that makes plutonium weapon pits, is and will continue to be off limits for obvious reasons.

Posted by john 2006-03-02 21:01|| 2006-03-02 21:01|| Front Page Top

#9 Tag this additional deal on and everything gets more interesting U.S. to boost arms sales to India
: CNN
India will be able to buy more sophisticated fighter aircraft and other high-tech arms from the United States as part of a closer defense relationship between the two nations, the United States Department of Defense has said.

This would include state-of-the-art combat aircraft including the F-16 and F-18, the department said in a statement released Thursday.

"It is our goal to help meet India's needs in the defense realm, and to provide important capabilities and technologies that India seeks. We are on a path to accomplish this," the statement said.

[..]

Posted by 3dc 2006-03-02 23:10|| 2006-03-02 23:10|| Front Page Top

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