NEW DELHI, Sept 7: Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is going to Washington later this month to sign a historic and unprecedented Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement.

The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) granted India a clean and unconditional waiver for nuclear commerce in Vienna on Saturday (September 6) after a great deal of diplomatic effort by Indian and American officials and leaders.

New Delhi now hopes to clear the last hurdle, the US

Congress clearance for formalizing the agreement that will end India’s nuclear isolation 34 years after it conducted its first nuclear test in May 1974.

The agreement was conceptualized by Dr. Singh and President George W Bush in July 2005 to help India produce clean energy so that its trillion-dollar economy can continue to grow at the rate of 8% to 10% one year during the coming decade as well.

The US Congress is expected to take up the agreement for a debate on Monday (September 8), the very first day of its new session. With President George W Bush taking personal interest in making the deal happen, India expects the US Congress to clear the deal without much difficulty before it concludes its session on September 28.

Dr. Singh will arrive in New York on September 22 for the UN General Assembly (UNGA) session. After delivering his address at UNGA, he will go to Washington to meet President Bush for signing the deal and to personally thank him for successfully neutralizing stiff opposition from half a dozen countries, including Austria and New Zealand. They gave in after Bush telephoned their heads of government. Much to India’s surprise, China resisted the deal at the last minute. Bush promptly intervened by telephoning President Hu Jintao. Beijing relented only after this.

From Washington, Dr. Singh will fly to France on September 28. An Indo-French draft agreement for civil nuclear cooperation has been ready for months, and was awaiting the NSG waiver for signing the agreement. Dr. Singh and President Nicolas Sarkozy are scheduled to sign the formal agreement in Paris on September 30.

An Indo-Russian agreement’s draft is also ready. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is visiting India in November to sign the agreement and to pave the way for resumption of nuclear commerce between the two countries.

When India conducted its first nuclear test in May 1974, the NSG retaliated by banning its 45 member countries from selling nuclear fuel and technologies to India. Inadequate domestic uranium supplies forced India to run its existing 17 nuclear reactors at only 54% of their installed capacity during 2007-08, the lowest in decades.

Now that India can import nuclear fuel, it will run all its reactors to full capacity, and also activate three new reactors. The 220MW Kaiga-4 and the 220MW Rajasthan Atomic Power Plants (RAPPs) 5 and 6 at Rawatbhata have been lying idle for want of uranium. Two 700MW units are to come up in Kakrapar in Gujarat and two more in Rawatbhata.

The Kudankulam Atomic Power Project, which India is building in collaboration with Russia, will be expanded. Two 1,000MW reactors are being built there. New Delhi and Moscow are keen to set up four more reactors.

India will also have access to Canada’s CANDU reactors that allow the breeding of thorium directly instead of depending on home-grown breeder reactors.