CPI(M) ups ante on Indo-US nuke deal

Upping its ante over the Indo-US nuclear deal once again, the CPI(M) on Tuesday said it was a "conspiracy" to prevent India from gaining the capability to produce energy by using thorium.

"It was a conspiracy to stop our progress to that level. ... The US imperialism does not want us to acquire that capability," Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said in New Delhi.

Pointing out that India had the largest thorium reserves in the world, he said this required advanced technology for re-processing and the government was not taking measures in this regard.

Responding to queries on recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) criticising the Department of Atomic Energy for being unable to fully exploit uranium reserves, he said the report proved "our contention" that there was enough uranium reserves in the country and there was "no need for the Indo-US deal".

He said the CAG findings that uranium reserves were left unexplored and untapped, leading to nuclear reactors not being fully utilised, vindicated the Left stand that there was an unusual rush to sign the nuclear deal.

"Had they done all this properly, our (nuclear) power generation would have gone up substantially and there would have been no need for the deal with the US," Yechury said.

The CAG report had pointed out that the estimated uranium reserve in September 2007 stood at 1,07,268 tonnes, while the fuel requirement of the 10,000 MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor programme was 1,01,600 tonnes for the entire 40-year life-span of the nuclear power plants.