A talk on ‘The Continuing Saga of the Nuclear Deal’ was delivered by Prof. R. Rajaraman, Emeritus Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jawaharlal Nehru Chair in Professor of School of Physics, at C.V. Raman, University of Hyderabad. Welcoming the distinguished speaker Prof. R. Singh, Dean, School of Physics said that it is an honour that today we are able to listen to a person who has carried out lot of research on the Nuclear Deal. Prof. M. Sivakumar introduced the speaker.
Prof. Rajaraman talks about the status and the future prospectus of the Indo-Us Nuclear Deal. The deal started in 2005, was signed in 2008 but has been kept on the back-burner for a decade. However, President Obama’s visit to India last month stirred the interest recently.
Considering several problems created by nuclear reactors like climate change, solar energy, Prof. Rajaraman revolved around the co-operation on Civilian Nuclear Energy especially on liability law which is the central theme of the discussion and debate globally.
Tracing several problems nuclear countries and India in particular have faced so far, he pointed out four major reasons that held back the nuclear development. “ The operation which was started in 2005 and yet the development is so slow is because of the sanctioned imposed on India, non-proliferation, unavailability of funds and lack of Uranium,” says Prof. Rajaraman.
Followed by the 25th anniversary of Bhopal Gas tragedy, many members in Parliament from the ruling Congress said, “India should not once again sell out the US nuclear interest.” Liability causes many problems to human kind hence, Nuclear Liability Bill would be a wise step, says Prof. Rajaram who liked the bill in many ways.
“Will our congress party allow this? Privately some congress leaders have told me yes”, claims Prof. Rajaram. Giving some insights and solutions on what India should do, he says, “ I felt that while excluding supplier liability might have been justifiable to encourage the nuclear industry during its infancy, it is not justifiable forever, even after the industry has fully matured and about 400 reactors built.” “So instead of being apologetic about including about including supplier liability and thinking of ways to amend the Act to get rid of it altogether, we must find a way of keeping some supplier liability in, but with some responsible mitigating modifications,” he added.
By Nidhi Gupta, MA-Communication