NEW DELHI: The Tarapur nuclear reactor, one of India’s nuclear reprocessing plants built with American collaboration has become the center of a controversy on whether it can continue producing enriched uranium after 1994.
The twin 210mw reactors in operation since 1969 were built by the international general electric company of the United States under an intergovernmental agreement signed in 1963. The agreement expires on October 25 this year.
The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) spokesman said the expiry of the agreement “automatically lifts Tarapur from international safeguards, and gives India the freedom to reprocess the spent fuel that is Indian property under the terms of the 1963 agreement.”
The US official however said the AEC has no legal ground for reprocessing even after the expiry of the agreement because the agreement had specified that reprocessing would be allowed only with U S consent, “Such consent was not given and is not likely to be given under the existing US domestic law,” he said.
Asked to comment on U S objection to reprocessing the AEC spokesman said:” “The 1963 agreement itself provided for reprocessing upon “joint determination” of the parties. Joint determination does not mean prior approval of the U S but it only means that the U S$ must be convinced that the reprocessing plant can be adequately safeguarded.”
According to Indian officials, the U S accepted the design of the reprocessing plant as early as in 1968 but failed to formally complete the “joint determination” exercise, “thereby making the important clause of the 1963 agreement infructuous.”
The officials said the reprocessing plant built at considerable cost has not been used for the purpose for which it was built. It is currently used to extract plutonium from fuel discharged by the power plant at Kota.
The AEC spokesman said that mox fuel is the only option India has to keep Tarapur plant running because the enriched uranium produced indigenously in my sore is not sufficient.
Tarapur is the only nuclear plant in India requiring enriched uranium; The US was regularly supplying fuel to Tarapur until the Indian nuclear test in 1974. After that supplies became erratic and stopped in 1981.
France which became the supplier from 1983 informed the Indian government six months ago that it will not provide fuel after 1993 unless India opened all its nuclear facilities to international inspection.
With objections now raised over reprocessing, the fate of India’s oldest nuclear power station has become uncertain.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 25, 1993
