The Congress-led UPA government is looking firm to discuss the safeguard agreement in IAEA on the Civilian Nuke Deal. The Indian diplomat delegation led by Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar told International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei that India will get back to the agency to push the India-specific safeguards agreement forward.

During a 20-minute meeting held in Vienna on Wednesday, Kakodkar told ElBaradei:

Everyone knows what is going on in India on the political front over the Indo-US nuclear deal. We will get back to you.

During the meeting, both Kakodkar and ElBaradei discussed the other possible aspects of the civilian nuclear cooperation between India and the UN watchdog agency IAEA. At the sane time, they avoided to discuss anything that might irk the Left leaders in India.

Kakodkar said in Vienna, while addressing the 51st general conference of the IAEA:

India looks forward to the possibility of opening up of international civil nuclear cooperation.

We expect such cooperation to be sustainable, free from interruptions and consistent with our national policy of closed fuel cycle.

If the international civil nuclear sector were to open up to the country, India could look at the export of reactors and services.

Kakodkar further said:

India today is the only country to have a live technology, design and infrastructure for small Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) with a unit capacity of 220 MWe, which have a great potential for export, particularly to countries with small grids wishing to enter nuclear power generation.

On the other hand, the left bloc is also standing firm on the decision to halt the nuke deal at least for 6 months. Just before the scheduled second meeting of the UPA-Left committee, the left leaders rejected the UPA’s claim that the Hyde Act’s impact on the Indo-US pact will be neutralized if the US Congress ratified the deal.

Now, the committee is scheduled to meet again on October 5. Pranab Mukjerjee said after the second meeting that discussions were constructive. The process would continue at the next meeting of the committee.

This is being said that the left leaders failed to specify which part of the Hyde Act, according to them, could impact the agreement. A Congress leader said: Even at Wednesday meeting, the Left leaders failed to present the point.

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