Davos:
India’s nuclear reactors are “completely protected” because it applies the very best ranges of security requirements to its civil nuclear programme, the chief of worldwide nuclear watchdog Worldwide Atomic Power Company (IAEA) has informed NDTV.
In an interview on the sidelines of Davos 2025, IAEA director basic Rafael Mariano Grossi was requested how protected India’s nuclear reactors are. ”Completely protected. India applies to its civilian nuclear programme the very best ranges of internationally agreed and IAEA established nuclear security requirements and safety steerage,” he replied.
On India’s fast-breeder nuclear reactor programme, the primary of which is being developed at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, Grossi stated, “It could possibly be an fascinating add-on to its fleet.”
India has imposed a voluntarily moratorium on nuclear explosive testing for the reason that Pokhran exams in 1998. Requested if New Delhi can be inside its rights to check if China or Pakistan went forward with nuclear exams, Gross replied, ”Our place and the place of the worldwide neighborhood is that we should always transfer to a basic ban on nuclear testing so we hope that there will not be a necessity for additional testing, neither within the subcontinent nor elsewhere.”
To a query on whether or not India needs to be part of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which presently has 48 international locations as its members, the IAEA chief stated, ”I’ve been President of the Nuclear Suppliers group and I interacted very actively in attempting to convey this to an equitable answer, together with with different international locations which had comparable aspirations. My interactions, even with Overseas Minister S Jaishankar, had been extraordinarily helpful. We had been very shut on the time to a very good final result.”
“After all, there’s a greater, wider political scene which enters into the state of affairs with regards to that. That is for the members to resolve,” he added.
To a query on whether or not the India-US civil nuclear deal is ready to realize its full potential as Washington DC tries to barter the legal responsibility clause that may allow it to construct reactors in India, Grossi stated it was for India and US to resolve. What I can say is that the Indian civil nuclear programme is among the many largest and most various worldwide. “India has each [nuclear] know-how and masters each know-how in an excellent method. I consider that with the present growth and curiosity in nuclear vitality, we’re the very best place to see these ranges of cooperation and commerce develop,” he stated.
The IAEA chief additionally took questions on the state of affairs in Ukraine and stated there have been a number of events when the watchdog feared a nuclear accident. “Zaporizhzia is correct within the center, on the frontline, extraordinarily fragile. It has been topic to shelling, and extra regularly, blackouts. This implies lack of cooling operate may need led to a nuclear accident. We’re counting it by the day when now we have conditions like this. It is likely one of the largest challenges that IAEA faces,” he stated.
On the West Asia state of affairs, Grossi stated that whereas the nuclear watchdog doesn’t have any proof that Iran is constructing a nuclear weapon, it has collected huge ranges of enriched Uranium which is “very, very shut” to weapon-level grade. He additionally stated the IAEA haven’t obtained Tehran’s full cooperation in inspections and in clarifying its questions.
