Mumbai, August 31
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today gave enough indications that the UPA government has not given up on the Indo-US nuclear deal in spite an obvious slowdown to placate its allies from the Left front.

Manmohan Singh expressed confidence that India will break its decades-old nuclear isolation, declaring the country couldn’t “afford to miss” the nuclear bus.

“There is today talk the world over of a nuclear renaissance and we cannot afford to miss the bus or lag behind these,” he said.

At a function to commission the Tarapur Atomic Power Station 3 and 4 nuclear reactors here this morning, Dr Singh noted that international co-operation was required to enhance India’s power supply. “We have set a modest target of 20,000 MW of nuclear power generation by 2020. This can be doubled with the opening up of international cooperation,” Dr Singh said.

The Prime Minister warned that India did not have the luxury of exploring alternative sources of power.

“First, our proven resources of coal, oil, gas and hydropower are totally insufficient to meet our requirements.
“Secondly, India needs energy from all known and likely sources of energy.
“Thirdly, the energy we generate has to be affordable, not only in terms of its financial cost but in terms of the cost to our environment,” he said.

He warned that India’s own supply of uranium was very limited. “We have, therefore, consciously opted laudable steps to maximise output within the limited resources. We must take decisive steps to remove the uncertainties that result from shortfall in fuel supplies to avoid disruptions in our nuclear power production programme,” Dr Singh said.

“We need to pave the way for India to benefit from nuclear commerce without restrictions,” the PM noted.

Dr Singh, however, noted that such a process would not become effective until the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), including the US, Russia, France and Japan, adapted its guidelines to enable nuclear commerce with India.

“Once these steps are taken, India can commence civil nuclear cooperation with all 45 members of the NSG. This will signal the end of our international isolation of the past few decades,” he said.

The Prime Minister added that Indian industry needed to reap the benefits of nuclear commerce without restrictions. “We need to enable our industries to gain access to cutting-edge technology, and we need to create opportunities for our scientists to participate in the international exchange of scientific ideas and technical know-how,” he said.