US reiterates support for India’s inclusion in Nuclear Suppliers Group

MUMBAI: The Biden administration has reaffirmed its support for India’s membership in the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and reiterated its commitment “to continue engagement with like minded partners to advance this goal”, according to the Modi-Biden agreement document released by the White House on June 22.
As of today, India is not a member of the NSG, the main reason being its refusal to sign the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
India applied for NSG membership in May 2016, but it was denied following a joint decision by the member countries.
The NSG was formed following the nuclear test conducted by India at Pokhran on May 18, 1974, code-named ‘Smiling Buddha’. The group’s role is to control the proliferation of atomic weapons by curbing the export of materials connected with the development of nuclear bombs.
The agreement further states that India’s Department of Atomic Energy is making an in-kind contribution of US$140 million to the US department of energy’s Fermi National Laboratory towards the collaborative development of what is known as the ‘Proton Improvement Plan-11 Accelerator’, related to the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility.
The role of this project is to study neutrinos produced at Fermilab in Illinois near Chicago, and the experiment is designed for a 20-year period of data collection. Neutrinos are the “most abundant particles that have mass in the universe”.
Underscoring the important role nuclear energy plays in global decarbonisation efforts, the Modi-Biden agreement affirmed that nuclear energy was a necessary resource to meet climate, energy transition and energy security needs.
Both the leaders emphasised the development of the next generation small modular reactor technologies in a collaborative mode for the domestic market as well as export. They also took note of the ongoing negotiations between the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and the Westinghouse Electric Company of America for construction of six nuclear reactors in India.