Progress

3 March 2006



Bush Signs Nuke Deal with India’s Singh

Nothing makes the Kensington Review happier than when the President of the United States gets a major policy goal right. Yesterday’s nuclear cooperation deal with India is just such a goal. If only Mr. Bush could make a habit of this sort of thing.

Since 1998, the United States has had sanctions of various sorts against India because it tested a nuclear device. Those with any memory at all will recall that India did so in response to Pakistan’s first successful nuclear explosion. Before that, on May 18, 1974, India exploded its first bomb; in a delicious oxymoron, the government of the day described it as a “peaceful nuclear explosion.” India has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and never has had its nuclear program under international inspection.

Mr. Bush has made a deal with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that divides India’s military nuke program from its civilian one and that places the civilian program under international inspection. This is a case of a half-loaf being better than none, or maybe four-fifths. Right now, India has 14 nuclear power plants which generate 3% of its electricity. Nine more plants are under construction, and by 2050, according to the Uranium Information Center, India is going to try to generate 25% of its electricity with fission. Presuming that energy consumption merely doubles in India in the next 45 years (surely a conservative estimate), this requires huge construction. However, given alternatives such as ever-more expensive oil, India has little choice.

Unlike Iran’s program, India’s may well rely on the fission of thorium rather than uranium because it has so much of the former and so little of the latter. Thorium is preferable because a runaway reaction like Chernobyl is not possible; however, it can theoretically be used in a bomb. That’s where the inspectors come in. Moreover, American participation in construction of these new plants gives the US a better clue as to what is going on in India.

The cries of “double standard” have already gone up, and indeed, there is a double standard here between Indian nuclear ambitions and those of Iran and North Korea. Of course, Mr. Bush has no trouble with the idea that one standard applies to democracies like India and another applies to more repressive governments. Neither does this journal. Congress must change some laws to get this agreement to enter into effect, and the sooner the better for a (slightly) safer world.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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