INDO-US Nuclear Deal

Energy being an engine of economy, plays a crucial role in achieving economic targets of India. Increasing energy both quality and quantity wise, with sustainable development, is the major challenge before India. Nuclear energy being environment friendly , seems to be an optimal option to India to face its challenges.
India is not the signatory of non-proliferation treaty. This prevented India from receiving any assistance from any of the major nuclear powers and also from a 45 member Nuclear Supply Group [NSG]. With this isolation and less uranium reserves in the country , only 3% of energy has been added to total energy by nuclear sources.
With these concerns, India moved on for a bilateral agreement with United States of America for civil nuclear co-operation between two countries. This agreement caused wide spread alarm and opened a debate on the agreement in all fields- Academic, Politics, Economic and at all levels- local , national, international.
The US president signed the Henry. J. Hyde US –India peaceful atomic energy co-operation act of 2006. This act was an amendment to the 1954 US atomic energy act, allowing the US president to enter into a bilateral agreement with India on civilian nuclear co-operation. This act contained provisions which were not in favor of India. Viz suspension of US co-operation if India conducts nuclear test in future, active participation of India to isolate Iran etc.
With negotiations from India side, US signed 123 agreement , which stipulates that a bilateral agreement has to be reached before the US could co-operate with any other country in the nuclear field.
Some of the highlights of Indo-US 123 agreement are.
a) Civil nuclear co-operation covering supply of nuclear fuel, nuclear reactors etc.
b) Development of strategic reserve of nuclear fuel by India.
c) Provision of reprocessing of spent fuel.
d) Right of USA to require India to return nuclear material of equipment in case of cessation of co-operation.
e) Non-Interference with India’s indigenous nuclear power program.
f) No explicit restriction on India’s right to conduct nuclear tests in future.
g) A provision of termination of agreement by either country with one year’s notice.
This agreement, when it comes in to force, will break three decade old isolation of India from international nuclear co-operation. India can import nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel from other countries also , if India succeeds in amending NSG guidelines in favour of it. Our nuclear public sector units also can acquire stakes in global natural uranium mines . This makes India to supply fuel not only with improved quality but also at lower prices. India can also improve ties with foreign nuclear players and will be capable of exporting its indigenous PHWRs to small nations like Thailand, Cambodia etc. The above concerns , make India to double it’s nuclear power generating capacity.
Even though India succeeded in getting maximum favour from US , India needs to address some issues before entering into the agreement.
Nuclear energy, though releases less amounts of green house gases, is an unrealistic solution to reduce global warming , because the construction and process of generating power takes much time. The cost of constructing the same will also be high. To reduce global warming by nuclear energy, it is estimated that a new nuclear plant has to be constructed every week. with this in view, India needs to depend along with the nuclear energy, more on other energy sources which are cheap and have immediate impact on environment and global warming.
India needs to develop safeguard measures of the nuclear program . The world has witnessed some terrible nuclear accidents like Chernobyl incident. Leakage of radiation from nuclear plants covers huge damage to life and property. Also, with growing terrorism , these nuclear plants may become their future targets of attack.
India needs to protect it’s independent foreign policy. Some believe that India voted against Iran at IAEA meeting, which affected relations with Iran, due to pressure from USA. we should give priority to energy independence over energy security , built on foreign sources. Hence, we should speed up the process of developing Thorium based nuclear power technology , as we have sufficient thorium recourses.
There are many people who differ with the technicalities in some provisions of the agreement. The right to reprocess is given only in-principle and it also does not provide for full civil nuclear co-operation, since the reprocessing, environment technology will not be transferred.
Nothing can be perfect. There will be some pros and cons. N-Deal with US exhibits results in a long run. With all these flood of ideas in it’s view, India should move forward with Indo-US nuclear deal. By keeping it’s foreign policy independent, India should view nuclear power as a voiable supplement of fossile fuel generated power but not as an alternative to the latter.

Cheyutha Supports Nuclear Deal with US.

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Sponsor a kid

The academic year is starting, and as stated before, we are humble and feel proud as we succeeded in "Sponsor a Kid" program. It all started with the "Sponsor a Kid" plan in which we started this project and this was communicated to many of our friends and members of Cheyutha, through emails and word of mouth. We had a great response back, and now we are able to sponsor around 8 kids for this academic year. (Still 3 admissions are in process).

The kids were very happy and we were able to see the glow on their faces, when they being handed out the slates, books and school uniforms. We can easily make that they were really excited to get them.

The tough time starts now. Now that with the help of donors, we are able to make 8 children join the school, we need to continously keep monitoring their academics to see that they make it really good at the end. And we know this is going to be tough.

We are really grateful and thank all the donors who Joined Their Hands For This Good Cause, without whom this would have been just on papers. And we assure you that WE, the Cheyutha team shall make the donors happy at the end of the day for supporting Cheyutha in sponsoring a kid.

Visit to Sphoorti

On the 15th of June, We, the Cheyutha Team, visited the Sphoorti Foundation near Cherlapalli. The kids at the place gave us a real good warm welcome. While the kids were introducing themselves to us, we were very pleased to see that all the kids were pretty decent in speaking english.

Then they took us to the library where they had a good amount of books collected with them along with the momentos and prizes they won. The kids there had some good talent with them, like some of them were singing very well. Then it was fun time. Some of us played cricket along with them, followed by carroms and blind fold, followed by some more. They showed us all of the rooms in which they were living. They made us feel like a kid all the time when we were there. We had a great weekend.

And as it was the new academic year starting this June, we saw a good number of elders helping the kids to cover and arrange the books.

Atlast this weekend was worth to see a group of kids happy playing, chitchatting, and helping each other living at a single place. It was just great to be there.