WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, Reuters: The United States and Canada are boosting India’s atomic weapon potential by failing to enforce controls on nuclear exports, according to a study in the American Journal of International Law published today. The report by University of Wisconsin Law Professor Gary Milhollin, a specialist on nuclear exports, said India could build up to 225 nuclear bombs in the 1990s, increasing pressure on its rival Pakistan to go nuclear.
“The United States and Canada are contributing to India’s nuclear weapon potential by failing to enforce peaceful use controls”, he said.
Milhollin, citing statements by Indian officials, said India, in the early 1990s, planned to convert to nuclear weapon status plutonium made from all nuclear power plant reactor fuel being supplied under a US. India trade pact.
Radioactive plutonium is a key component in nuclear energy production and can also be used to make nuclear weapons.
The report said India also planned to convert nuclear power reactors in Tarapur, which have been supplied by the United States, to military production status in 1993.
That would give India, which set off what it termed a peaceful nuclear test explosion in 1974, a much more potent nuclear option.
Milhollin argued that, under terms of agreements with the United States and Canada, India was barred from using the reactors or the plutonium for military purposes.
“These plans clearly breach India’s nuclear trade agreements with the United States and Can and a”, Milhollin said.
He urged the two countries and other nuclear suppliers to put pressure on India to keep its nuclear energy program peaceful and said if India refused Washington should cut off further fuel supplies to the reactors at Tarapur.
Canada, which ended nuclear cooperation with India after the 1974 test blast, could demand return of all heavy water, used in nuclear reactors that it had shipped to India over the years, according to the report.
France acts on behalf of the United States in supplying the Uranium to India and has agreed to follow U‘S. instructions in the event of a dispute, the report said.
Eight kilograms of plutonium care enough for one atomic bomb and, if India’s plans were to succeed, it would be able to shift 1,300 kilograms to military status, the report said.
Washington is concerned Pakistan, which has a long history of tension with India, is trying to make nuclear weapons and has urged both India and Pakistan to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and keep their nuclear plans peaceful.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 28, 1987
