New Delhi, November 16
Dr Richard A. Meserve, Chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is coming here soon in a path-breaking visit which will take strategic ties between New Delhi and Washington from strength to strength.
The focus of Dr Meserve’s visit to India would be cooperation in safeguarded nuclear facilities and identifying the specific areas of Indo-US cooperation in the hi-tech areas of peaceful applications of nuclear energy and space research.
Well-placed sources here disclosed to ‘The Tribune’ today that Dr Meserve is likely to come next month and meet top Indian officials in the fields of atomic energy and space.
Asked if Dr Meserve would be taken to some nuclear facilities of the country, sources replied in the negative. “There is no question of that. India is not Iraq,” a senior official here asserted.
This is probably the first time when a high-ranking American technocrat who is the Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is coming to India on an official visit.
Dr Meserve’s visit, sources said, may also give an opportunity to India to broach the topic of expanding the list of “dual use” items meant to be used in both civil and military areas. Some spareparts needed for sensitive projects like India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) are needed by India but Washington has so far stonewalled such efforts from New Delhi.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Kasturirangan had gone to the USA last month and visited the NASA headquarters also. Remote-sensing, disaster management etc. may get a boost.
