True, the accords with the three major nuclear powers hold the promise of advanced light water reactor imports to India, thereby giving a big push to this country's nuclear power capacity build-up in a short span of time. But the agreements are also laced by a commercial veneer: Big money deals. The India-Canada nuclear accord, on the other hand, is largely a technology enhancement agreement. Add to that Canada's commitment to export uranium to India on a large scale - and Canada is a world leader in uranium.

The most important feature of the India-Canada agreement lies in the commonality of reactor technology that both countries have adopted, as distinct from the type of reactors that the three top nuclear powers are constructing. India and Canada are both constructing what is known as pressurized heavy water reactors, while France, USA and Russia are engaged in light water reactors - the former fuelled by natural uranium, the latter by low enriched uranium.

These are two different technologies, each having its merits and negative points, and their overall economies are nearly matching. Why then did India and Canada not come to terms earlier - why the elapse of three decades for this engagement to fructify? The answer is just this : lack of understanding. And thereby hangs a tale.

At the beginning of India's nuclear power capacity build-up, it was Canada that came forward with meaningful civil nuclear cooperation. Dr Bhabha selected the Canadian reactor technology known as Candu reactors - pressurized heavy water reactor design, fuelled by natural uranium, moderated and cooled by heavy water.

The PHW reactor design enabled India to avoid getting enmeshed in nuclear weapon controversies, since various light water reactor designs required low enriched uranium as fuel. The PHWR design also had two other benefits. First, it was better adaptable to the thorium path, vital strategy for India because of India's vast thorium resources and meagre uranium resource. Second, the PHWR design lent better to handling radiation safety, proved by the four-decade safety record in India as well as Canada.

In the sixties, when India sought to build nuclear power generation capacity, Canada came forward to help India build its own nuclear electricity generation capacity: reactor construction of two nuclear power stations, Rajasthan I and II was undertaken.

Earlier, Canada had cooperated in building the CIRUS research reactor. CIRUS has played a great role in developing India's nuclear research, which included developing the advanced technology of reactor spent fuel reprocessing, essential for extracting plutonium - a man-made fissile element. And it is here that India-Canada nuclear estrangement begins.

When India carried out its first peaceful nuclear explosion experiment at Pokhran in 1974, the fissile core of plutonium had been built by reprocessing spent fuel from CIRUS. Canada reacting violently, charged India with misuse of Canadian civil nuclear cooperation by building atomic weapon devices. The Indian contention that the Pokhran test was a nuclear implosion for peaceful applications - which was an established activity in some countries as well as IAEA - did not cut much ice, and thereby commenced the three-decade-old India-Canada estrangement.

During these decades, Indian nuclear establishment has fought the global nuclear sanctions imposed on India by building nuclear capability through the hard indigenous way. It has built research facilities, nuclear infra structure as well as nuclear power generation capacity, pushing up India to an advanced nuclear capable nation. In the process, Indian scientists have not only made full use of the initial India-Canada cooperation but made significant advances.

The DHRUVA research reactor built by Indian scientists in the eighties is many times the CIRUS and in some respects better. DHRUVA has become the main-stay of India's atomic weapon programme, and Indian built PHW reactors are now rated among the best in the world. Kakrapar-I, 220 MW PHW reactor, won the prize, “Best PHWR in the world”, during the mid-nineties. Indian built Tarapur- 3 and 4, 540 MW PHWRs, have been registering up to 95 percent capacity factor, and now the nuclear establishment is moving on to build 700 MW capacity PHWRs. Such is the advance of Indian built PHWRs that Dr Mohammed el-Baradai, IAEA Director-General, during one of his earlier visits to India asked: “Why do you call your reactor design as Candu, you should describe it as Indu, since your reactors are in some respects an improvement on the original Canadian design”.

Canada has watched Indian nuclear capability development during these decades and sought to reverse the chapter of estrangement. The opportunity came with the Nuclear Supplier Group's waiver of the sanctions on India, even when it retained its weapons programme. The India-Canada civil nuclear cooperation agreement inked during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent visit signifies a new chapter for mutual cooperation between countries that have pursued similar technologies.

Three important areas of nuclear cooperation between the two countries open up.

First, technology development of PHWR design and its further improvement, jointly. Second, large Canadian uranium exports for Indian projects under IAEA safeguards, as also Canadian nuclear equipment import by India. Third, cooperation and joint exports of PHWRs to third countries. An interesting thing to watch would be India engaging in PHWR repair and maintenance market in Canada. A bright vista of India-Canada nuclear cooperation begins. (IPA Service)