At a time when the country is divided over the Indo-US nuclear deal, three prominent nuclear scientists have urged the government not to go ahead with the controversial deal.
Former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Dr. P K Iyengar, former chairman of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board Dr A Gopalakrishnan and former director of Bhabha Atomic Research Center Dr.A.N. Prasad say that there is a great deal of disquiet among the scientific community at large about the deal.
They also said they had met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] earlier and discussed about the after-effects of the deal, besides writing to the MPS.
The scientists say the government should not proceed to seek IAEA board approval for the current draft safeguards agreement until its implications are debated completely the country.
Disputing the government's claim about the energy security aspect if the deal is signed, the scientists say it has been quantitatively shown that the additional power will come at a much higher cost per unit of electricity compared to the conventional coal or hydro power, which India can generate without any foreign imports.
In a release, the scientists argue about the repercussions of the nuclear deal.
Here are the excerpts:
"Once the deal is in place, it is also clear that India's commercial nuclear interactions with the US as well as with any other country will be firmly controlled from Washington via the stipulatio
