NEW DELHI —
Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott met with his Indian counterpart Friday on a two-day state visit during which they are expected to sign a deal to allow the export of Australian uranium to India for use in power generation.
The agreement is expected to be signed Friday evening. Australia, which has almost a third of the world’s known uranium reserves, imposes strict conditions on uranium exports and India’s failure to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty had long been a barrier to a trade deal.
Australia and India have been negotiating a nuclear safeguards agreement with verification mechanisms since 2012, when a former Australian government agreed on civil nuclear energy cooperation with India that would eventually allow the export of Australian uranium to the energy-starved South Asian nation.
India faces chronic shortages of electricity and about 65 percent of its installed power generation capacity comes from burning fossil fuels including oil, coal and natural gas. India is eager to expand its nuclear power capacity.
Australia’s decision to sell uranium to India follows a civil nuclear agreement with the United States. The deal with the U.S. was signed in 2008 and allowed Washington to sell nuclear fuel and technology to India without it giving up its military nuclear program.
India is seeking a similar agreement with Japan. The two sides have claimed “significant progress” but failed to reach a last-minute agreement on safeguards sought by Tokyo when the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Japan earlier this month.
By pouring uranium into India, Australia would fuel an industry that India's Auditor General strongly condemned in September 2012. There is no national policy on nuclear and radiation safety, and inspections, safety standards, emergency response plans, the supervision of licensing of nuclear sites, and the disposal of nuclear waste are all dangerously sub-standard.
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