NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Indian atomic experts say they are opposed to nuclear separation even if it is done after six years as some have suggested.
"My own feeling is that India never ever said that Fast Breeder Reactors would be brought under international safeguards. My impression is that it is a suggestion coming from the American side," said M.R. Srinivasan, former chairman of the atomic energy commission.
The Hindu newspaper said Monday the suggestion that FBRs would be kept away from safeguards until 2010 means little, as the construction of the prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam, near southern Chennai, would be completed only by that time.
"I don't believe that the Indian side has said that it is ready to accept inspection obligations at a defined point in the future, Srinivasan said, adding, "it is completely unrealistic".
"2010 is the completion of FBR. So there is no meaning in not having safeguards till 2010. And we are not going to put (FBR) under safeguards as it is our design and technology," said S.B. Bhoje, former director of the Indira Gandhi centre for atomic research at Kalpakkam.
A news report said Indian scientists also oppose the recent U.S. proposal that India should hand over its spent fuel to supplier nations for reprocessing.
"In our reprocessing program, we have not produced plutonium on the scales that those countries have produced. Reprocessing is still a small program (in India)," Bhoje said.
