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No agreement for compensation due to accidental radiation, IAEA safeguards to be maintained
It was seen as the most significant bilateral agreement signed during President Maithripala Sirisena’s bilateral visit to New Delhi in February. Some Indian analysts even spun it as a preemption of Chinese ambitions in Sri Lanka. But neither India nor Sri Lanka released the full contents of their deal on “Cooperation on the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy”, breeding suspicion in some quarters that uranium enrichment was also being planned.
The Sunday Times is now in receipt of a copy of the eight-page document, shared by Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka. The agreement is to remain in force for ten years. Among other things, it communicates a desire to enhance cooperation between the parties on the basis of “sovereignty, equality, mutual respect and benefit”.
Significantly, the parties will also cooperate in areas of nuclear safety and radiation safety, nuclear and radiological disaster mitigation and environmental protection as well as nuclear security. Scientists have long urged the Sri Lankan Government to consider possible threats arising from the close proximity of some of India’s nuclear reactors.
India has one of the fastest growing nuclear reactor populations in the world. The only fast breeder reactor in South Asia is under construction in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu. It is expected to achieve “first criticality” in March 2015. Experts say that, while the “nuclearisation of India” had implications for Sri Lanka, the two countries have no agreement in place covering compensation for damage caused by radiation in the event of a nuclear accident.
India now has 20 operational nuclear reactors in six nuclear power plants. Two sites of concern to Sri Lanka are Kalpakkam and Kudankulam, both in South India. The second is only 232 kilometres west of Kalpitiya as the crow flies. The agreement, however, has no mention of compensation. A joint committee will be set up by the parties upon the entry into force of the deal. It will identify specific projects in relation to the areas of cooperation and monitor their implementation. It will comprise representatives of India’s Nuclear Controls and Planning Wing of the Department of Atomic Energy and Sri Lanka’s Atomic Energy Board or its designated successors.
The parties have consented to collaborate in the transfer and exchange of knowledge and expertise, the sharing of resources, capacity building, sharing of experience and the training of personnel. The areas to be covered are basic and applied research in the peaceful uses of nuclear technology; production and utilisation of radioactive isotopes for use in industry, agriculture and water management; and the use of radioactive isotopes for healthcare including nuclear medicine. It also includes treatment and management of radioactive waste.
The two countries will cooperate in educating and training scientific and technical persons. They will exchange experts, scientists, technicians and lecturers and hold consultations on scientific and technological issues. Joint studies and research are planned. The countries will also “supply and transport nuclear and radioactive material, equipment and services”.
The agreement prevents the parties from transferring the intellectual property rights generated through projects to any third party without express written approval. At the same time, it also states that, “The rights to intellectual property, including copyright, industrial property and know-how of any Party in respect of information or technology shared, utilised or transferred in pursuance of any project under this Agreement, shall remain with that Party”.
The section on “Protection of Information” binds the parties to confidentiality. It says also that, “The Parties shall ensure that nuclear and radiological material, equipment and technology exchanged under this Agreement as well as nuclear material and technologies produced through the use of such material, equipment and technologies shall not be used for the manufacture of nuclear material and technologies produced through the use of such material, equipment and technologies shall not be used for the manufacture of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or for any military purposes.”
The agreement binds each party to maintaining safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with respect to nuclear material, equipment and components transferred pursuant to the agreement. “Such safeguards shall also be maintained with respect to all special fissionable material used in or produced through the use of such nuclear material, material, equipment and component,” it states.
Any disputes that may arise in the implementation or interpretation of the agreement are to be settled amicably through discussion and negotiation.