Tuesday, 26 September, 2006

by Indrani Bagchi
ISTTimes News Network

NEW DELHI: The Indo-US nuclear deal is hanging by a thread. And it's all due to a single Democrat senator, Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader who has concerns about spent fuel from India coming to his native Nevada for disposal and who wants to introduce an amendment to the Bill.

The Yucca Mountain Repository in Nevada is proposed to be used by the US government as a terminal storage facility for nuclear waste — a controversial proposal.

He has effectively held up what would have been an easy passage for the bill in the Senate — by utilising a procedural feature called "unanimous consent".

This limits debate and amendments to the bill, making its floor vote a quick affair. But even one amendment throws this entire arrangement out of kilter and that's exactly what has happened.

This consent route was adopted by Senate leaders to mark a quick passage in a crowded Senate calendar; the Senate disbands for elections on September 29, which means there are very few days to squeeze the India legislation in.

Reid has reportedly refused to relent to persuasion thus far. Complicating matters on the Republican side of the floor is Larry Craig from Idaho, who also wants a similar amendment, but saying the opposite of Reid.

Unless these are resolved, the Senate passage looks like a clap of distant thunder. To add to the dissonance, Democrat-Republican relations are not at their best right now, particularly in election season.

In the past week, foreign secretary (and soon to be special envoy) Shyam Saran and senior officials from the foreign office have been stalking the corridors of New York and Washington.

Saran met his counterpart Nick Burns for several meetings as well as Senate leaders to lobby for the legislation. Saran and Burns also worked on the 123 Agreement as well as coordinated positions on the forthcoming meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

But all of this will unravel if the Senate fails to mark a floor vote this week. In fact, as officials complained, extraneous factors have dogged the Indian deal for a while.

First it was the Title II of the Bill, which was a ratification of the IAEA's additional protocol, and now the Yucca Mountain controversy, both of which have nothing to do with India but have muddied the Indian waters.