Japan studying whether to start nuke cooperation talks with India+

TOKYO, June 21 Kyodo -
Intra-governmental negotiations are under way in Japan to decide whether to
start negotiations with India over an agreement to cooperate in the field of
civilian nuclear power, government officials said Monday.
Major U.S. and French atomic power companies keen for Japan to conclude an
agreement so that they can use Japanese technology for an Indian reactor
project they are seeking to win, government sources said.
The transfer of Japanese technology to India for civilian use requires a
nuclear pact, but Japan has so far declined to conclude one as the South Asian
country has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
While the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is pushing for the nuclear
treaty, Foreign Ministry officials are studying the terms under which India can
effectively contribute to nuclear arms reduction as a prerequisite for
concluding the accord, the sources said.
For the Indian project, the major U.S. and French nuclear companies, including
Areva SA of France, want to use reactor vessels made by Japan Steel Works Ltd.,
which commands some 80 percent of the global market for the equipment.
The companies plan to work out a system for the supply of related equipment for
the Indian project after Japan determines its stance on the issue.
The government needs to decide whether to launch negotiations with India ''by
autumn or by the end of this year at the latest'' to let Japanese companies
participate in the project, a METI source said.
When METI minister Masayuki Naoshima visited India in late April, the two
governments set up a joint working group to discuss nuclear policies and safety
standards to pave the way for a future bilateral nuclear pact, according to a
senior ministry official.
A possible nuclear pact between Japan and India may adversely affect the
international nuclear nonproliferation framework at a time when Pakistan, which
is also a nonmember of the NPT, is moving to import China's nuclear
power-generation technology.
With an increasing number of countries inclined toward cooperating with India
in the field of nuclear power, ''I wonder if it is meaningful for Japan to say
something different'' from them, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said during a
recent interview with Kyodo News.
''We will have to make a rather tough decision,'' he added.
==Kyodo
2010-06-21 23:19:31