Who does nuclear proliferation?

[maadhav 0]

pls read the below article, or the last two paragraphs of it. how does it impact bharat's interests?

 

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Miami Herald

October 20, 2004

 

Reactor Sale Called Likely

 

The chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that China will probably be allowed to purchase a U.S.-designed nuclear reactor.

 

By Tim Johnson, Knight Ridder News Service

 

BEIJING - The Bush administration is likely to permit China to buy U.S.-designed state-of-the-art nuclear reactors within several months if it so desires, the top American nuclear regulator said Tuesday.

 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Nils J. Diaz said he saw no significant opposition to the sale before a full commission vote ``within the next couple of months.''

 

China, hobbled by energy shortages, has said it'll spend $8 billion to purchase four foreign nuclear reactors in what's expected to be the world's most ambitious nuclear power-construction program.

 

China plans to double its nuclear capacity by the year 2020, a goal that may require it to build as many as 32 large 1,000-megawatt reactors. China has 11 reactors in use or under construction, providing barely 2 percent of its annual energy needs, far less than the 16 percent average reliance on nuclear energy in developed countries.

 

Companies based in the United States, France and Germany are competing intensely for the rights to sell and construct the four reactors.

 

Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse, a unit of a United Kingdom company, British Nuclear Fuels, is vying with German-based Siemens and French-owned Areva. A single bidder may get the entire contract. China has said it'll decide on a winning bid soon.

 

Diaz said the systems in the 1,090-megawatt Westinghouse AP1000 reactor had undergone years of safety testing, and that the overall reactor was ``almost two orders of magnitude safer than present types of reactors.''

 

''They are looking for a reactor with reduced maintenance, reduced monitoring, something that is state-of-the-art. And the AP1000 is a state-of-the-art reactor,'' Diaz said at a news conference.

 

Diaz said he thought the NRC would put few conditions on selling the reactors to China, although ''certain assurances will probably be asked'' of Beijing not to turn around and sell the reactors to other countries. The Bush administration may request that China let U.S. technicians observe construction, he added.

 

Twenty-four of China's 27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have been hit by blackouts this year as the nation's overburdened power grid tries to keep up with soaring demand. Power demand surged 16 percent in the first six months of this year over the same period last year.

 

China, the world's second biggest energy consumer, after the United States, uses coal-fired plants for much of its energy needs, followed by hydropower. But coal is found mainly in the west, and hydropower in the southwest, far from the industrialized eastern seaboard.

 

The nation's existing nuclear reactors are in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces in eastern China and Guangdong province in southeast China, abutting Hong Kong.

 

Those who oppose selling the American nuclear reactors say China shouldn't be rewarded with U.S. technology after it promised earlier this year to sell a second large nuclear reactor to Pakistan that is capable of producing plutonium and fueling Islamabad's nuclear weapons arsenal.

 

Despite China's past history in weapons proliferation, Washington has decided it's better to work closely with Beijing on nuclear issues, particularly in civilian energy programs.

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on the other hand, what could US sell to china with whom US has a very large trade deficit?

 

is globalization helping the vedic interests?