New Delhi: As Left parties reacted sharply to reports from Vienna about Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) meeting on Thursday to discuss aspects of Indo-US nuclear deal, the government is understood to have conveyed to its key outside supporters that Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar would not be present at the meeting.
Left sources said the issue of the proposed NSG meeting came up at the deliberations of the Left parties and it was decided not to press the matter since Wednesday's meeting was being convened by the US.
CPI leader AB Bardhan said Kakodkar has given a speech in the IAEA conference and has not been discussing India specific safeguards.
His party leader D Raja said it would be a 'breach of trust' if the government went ahead with the negotiations on India-specific safeguards agreement at the ongoing IAEA meet in Vienna.
Earlier on Wednesday, the UPA Government did go ahead with its plans, making a forceful case at International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for international civil nuclear cooperation with India in spite of the Left's rug-pulling act.
Addressing the 51st General Conference of IAEA at Vienna, Kakodkar told the world nuclear community that India has immense potential of becoming a manufacturing hub for the global nuclear industry.
He said India looked forward to opening up of international civil nuclear cooperation that is sustainable, free from interruption and consistent with its national policy.
"India is looking forward to the possibility of opening up of international civil nuclear cooperation. We expect such cooperation to be sustainable, free from interruptions and consistent with our national policy of closed fuel cycle," Kakodkar, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), said.
Kakodkar noted that an AEC panel has evaluated several coastal sites in the country for setting up of imported reactors. He said reactor imports were an additionality to the ongoing indigenous nuclear programme to significantly augment nuclear power generation capacity in the near term.
He said the civil nuclear deal with the US also opens up the possibility of export of reactors and services.
"India today is the only country to have technologies, design and infrastructure for small Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors with a unit capacity of 220 MW, which have a great potential for export, particularly to countries with small grids, wishing to enter nuclear power generation with relatively modest investment and infrastructure," he said.
"With India's large infrastructure base and relatively low manufacturing cost, there is also potential for India becoming a manufacturing hub for equipment and components for the global nuclear industry," he said.
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