Rice, Nuclear Power and India

[Nogbad]

It would seem that Ms Rice is in India to further cement US ties and to promote US business interests in India, in particular nuclear power. There is nothing wrong with this but India has never signed the non-proliferation treaty. Might this not be read as double standards?

Actually, I wasn't aware that the US was still a player in the nuclear power industry but that is another matter.

 

[AgeGap]

Ditto. I once read a book called the elements of nuclear power. It stated that most generators were developed either from research or military reactors. Canada's were designed from scratch. So buy Canadian.
If you watched the recent Horizon about Science for the new President, it gave the impression that they had abandoned nuclear power and abandoned the power plants.

 

[Rob Lister]

???

what an odd thread!

Guys, gals, peguines, please! include links if your description of events is to be so lazily rendered.

 

[Francesca R]

It would seem that Ms Rice is in India to further cement US ties and to promote US business interests in India, in particular nuclear power. There is nothing wrong with this but India has never signed the non-proliferation treaty.

India has a "sweetheart deal" with the US on nuclear power, which the US congress approved a few days back, and which has been in the works for about three years. The essence of the deal is that India has a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group to purchase civilian nuclear materials without signing the Non Proliferation Treaty (or the Test Ban Treaty either), just as long as it never performs another nuclear weapon test.

Might this not be read as double standards?

Yes, well it is. It shows that if you have "strategic importance" to the US, the NPT does not have very sharp teeth. (The strategic importance appears to be as a political and economic counterweight to China . . . not too long ago China was supposed to be the same to the USSR). But the nuclear club is itself shot through with double standards. "We will keep ours but nobody else can have them" is one, and that doesn't work too well since the number of known nuclear states is about twice as large as the official five. Whether anyone likes it or not, nuclear capability brings geopolitical status, and several nations therefore stand to gain by pushing it forward. Also, not every country that has signed the NPT has complied with it.

Actually, I wasn't aware that the US was still a player in the nuclear power industry but that is another matter.

Really? I don't know about that. But it's not as though nuclear is a stand-alone industry. The US probably stands to gain a lot of business for its conventional defence contractors.

But overall, the US loses power with this IMO. India was never likely to sign the NPT and now it has all the boxes ticked for being rewarded for that.

 

[AgeGap]

BBC_Horizon_Link

Got Richard Dawkins in it, innit.