India’s Prime Minister has released a statement on India’s plan to separate civil and military nuclear facilities.
The “civilian list” will contain less than 2/3 of India’s nuclear power reactors, by MWe:
Therefore our proposed Separation Plan entails identifying in phases, a number of our thermal nuclear reactors as civilian facilities to be placed under IAEA safeguards, amounting to roughly 65% of the total installed thermal nuclear power capacity, by the end of the separation plan. A list of some other DAE facilities may be added to the list of facilities within the civilian domain. The Separation Plan will create a clearly defined civilian domain, where IAEA safeguards apply. On our part, we are committed not to divert any nuclear material intended for the civilian domain from designated civilian use or for export to third countries without safeguards.
Singh also stated that safeguarding India’s prototype fast breeder reactors would be out of the question.
Here is a list of India’s operating reactors.
| Unit | Location | Type | Capacity (MWe) | Date of Commercial Operation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TAPS-1 | Tarapur, Maharashtra | BWR | 160 | 28-Oct-1969 |
| TAPS-2 | Tarapur, Maharashtra | BWR | 160 | 28-Oct-1969 |
| RAPS-1 | Rawatbhata, Rajasthan | PHWR | 100 | 16-Dec-1973 |
| RAPS-2 | Rawatbhata, Rajasthan | PHWR | 200 | 01-Apr-1981 |
| MAPS-1 | Kalpakkam, Tamilnadu | PHWR | 170 | 27-Jan-1984 |
| MAPS-2 | Kalpakkam, Tamilnadu | PHWR | 220 | 21-Mar-1986 |
| NAPS-1 | Narora, Uttar Pradesh | PHWR | 220 | 01-Jan-1991 |
| NAPS-2 | Narora, Uttar Pradesh | PHWR | 220 | 01-Jul-1992 |
| KAPS-1 | Kakrapar, Gujarat | PHWR | 220 | 06-May-1993 |
| KAPS-2 | Kakrapar, Gujarat | PHWR | 220 | 01-Sep-1995 |
| KAIGA-1 | Kaiga, Karnataka | PHWR | 220 | 16-Nov-2000 |
| KAIGA-2 | Kaiga, Karnataka | PHWR | 220 | 16-Mar-2000 |
| RAPS-3 | Rawatbhata, Rajasthan | PHWR | 220 | 01-Jun-2000 |
| RAPS-4 | Rawatbhata, Rajasthan | PHWR | 220 | 23-Dec-2000 |
| TAPS-4 | Tarapur, Maharashtra | PHWR | 540 | 12-Sept-2005 |
| Total | … | … | 3310 | … |
The first four reactors (TAPS-1, TAPS-2, RAPS-1 and RAPS-2) are already under IAEA safeguards.
It looks to me that something like five of the nine essentially identical 200 MWe reactors would be added to the list. Singh didn’t offer any explanation regarding how that decision would be made. Only The Indian Express delves into the details of the speech. (The site has amazingly irritating pop-ups capable of defeating my Firefox pop-up blocker).
Nor did Singh indicate whether future reactors would be safeguarded.
| Project | Capacity (MWe) | Scheduled Commercial Operation |
|---|---|---|
| TAPP-3 | 1 X 540 | U3-Jan 07 |
| Kaiga-3 & 4 | 2 X 220 | U3-Mar 07 |
| U4 – Sep 07 | ||
| KK-1 & 2 | 2 X 1000 | U1 – Dec 07 |
| U2 – Dec 08 | ||
| RAPP – 5 & 6 | 2 X 220 | U5 – Aug 07 |
| U6 – Feb 08 |
***
The best part of the internecine warfare between the ruling Congress party and their BJP predecessors has been the debate over which party gets the boquet for “biggest bunch of colonial lackies.”
No, you do. No, you do.
The Congress Party claims the BJP offered to place 70 percent of India’s existing capaicty and all new reactors under full scope safeguards in 2002—something the BJP has denied, grumbling that they only offered a “couple of existing nuclear facilities” for full-scope safeguards.
I missed that offer at the time, although I do note a cryptic 2004 reference in India Today to the BJP-led government’s efforts “to ‘sanitise’ [India’s] weapons programme from the power programme” and that “accession to the Additional Protocol in return for an informal admission into the nuclear club is not inconceivable.”