U.S.-India Nuclear Cooperation
Background and Issues for Debate
The United States actively promoted nuclear energycooperation with India fromthe mid-1950s, building nuclear power reactors (Tarapur), providing heavy waterfor the CIRUS research reactor, and allowing Indian scientists to study at U.S. nuclearlaboratories. Although Indiawas active in negotiations of the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), India refusedto join the NPT on grounds that it was discriminatory. The “peaceful nuclear test in 1974demonstrated that nuclear technology transferred for peaceful purposes could beused to produce nuclear weapons. In theUnited States, the Congress responded by passing the Nuclear Non-ProliferationAct of 1978 (NNPA), which imposed tough new requirements for U.S. nuclearexports to non-nuclear-weapon…
