Russia ignores US, delivers nuclear fuel to India

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Russia has delivered fresh nuclear
fuel for two Indian reactors, ignoring a U.S. request for a
delay until rules are formally changed to allow such transfers,
American officials said in recent interviews.

The delivery, which experts say violates international
rules, comes as the U.S. Congress is considering whether to
approve an agreement that would allow India to obtain nuclear
fuel, reactors and technology from the United States and other
countries for the first time in three decades.

The Russian fuel for the two Tarapur power plants “has been
delivered but it has not yet been used. It’s in a storage
facility,” a senior U.S. official told Reuters.

“This kind of activity should not take place, in our view,
until the NSG has acted. It’s not good precedent,” he said.

The United States has asked India to refrain from using the
fuel and believes this request will be honored, he added.

The official, who spoke anonymously because of the
sensitivity of the matter, insisted that while the transfer is
an “irritant … (it) has not been a major issue.”

The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group has not yet altered
its rules to permit nuclear transfers to India and is not
expected to do so until Congress votes. That could take months
because of concern that the U.S.-India civilian nuclear
co-operation agreement could undermine efforts to control
nuclear proliferation.

“Russia has clearly violated NSG rules,” Daryl Kimball,
director of the nonprofit Arms Control Association. said of
Moscow’s nuclear fuel delivery.

“This is a further step toward the erosion of the NSG
guidelines and the United States must speak out more strongly
against Russia and India pursuing this.”

Democratic Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, a leading
critic of the U.S.-India deal, expressed concern that the
agreement has “pretty much neutralized the ability of the U.S.
to block this type of shipment.”

“The United States can’t plausibly tell other nations not
to ship nuclear material or technology to India if we are
preparing to do so ourselves,” he said.

As a member of the NSG, which controls global nuclear
trade, Russia should not supply fuel to countries like India,
which have not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

The uranium fuel for Tarapur was delivered recently
following a Russia-India agreement announced last month.

UnderSecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who is negotiating
the deal with India, mildly criticized the sale at the time.

While acknowledging that India needs energy for its
fast-growing economy, Burns said Russia should delay the
transfer until Congress and the NSG formally change their
rules.

In supplying the fuel, Russia invoked an NSG “safety
exemption clause” which allows fuel transfers if there is
reason to believe that starving a reactor of fuel could result
in a nuclear hazard.

But many non-proliferation experts reject this argument,
reasoning that if there was a real safety issue, the reactors
should be shut down, not refueled.

The United States believes “there is no immediate safety
concern … but you could make a case in the next year or two
that there could be safety problem” at Tarapur, the senior U.S.
official said.

Russia used the same safety rationale when it sold India
nuclear fuel in early 2001. At that time, the State Department
accused Russia of violating its NSG commitments and urged
Moscow to cancel the deal.