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| India-Pakistan |
| India boosts nuclear plant security |
| 2008-12-18 |
| India on Wednesday moved to secure its nuclear power plants, fearing that these strategic targets could be attacked by terrorists. The government introduced a no-fly zone in a 10-mile radius of the Kalpakkan nuclear power plant near Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Indian television also reported that restrictions had been reinforced on flights near oil installations and the centre of Delhi, India’s capital. The Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement that it was placing a ban on aircraft flying below 10,000ft over the nuclear plant “in the interest of the security of India”, according to The Times of India, the Indian daily newspaper. The move follows November’s devastating attack on Mumbai by terrorists allegedly linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned Pakistani militant group. India’s security forces are bracing themselves for a more sophisticated terror threat. Palaniappan Chidambaram, the home minister, has highlighted the vulnerability of India’s coastline to attack from the sea. Security forces are also worried about an air strike. “There is speculation of an air threat from rogue countries, which are inimical to Indian interests,” said Kapil Kaul, the chief executive in India of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Mr Kaul said India's security apparatus had been galvanised by the Mumbai attacks. “The sacrifices of those 180-plus people has done good for generations in India,” he said. “The entire security apparatus of India has changed. India was too soft as far as security was concerned and that has changed.” Wednesday’s restrictions in Indian airspace also follows a threat by the Deccan Mujahideen, the group that claimed responsibility for the Mumbai attacks, against airports in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore earlier this month. Defence analysts on Wednesday said the tighter security around nuclear plants was a “precautionary” move. The government has been conducting a review of its anti-terror response since the Mumbai strike and tougher anti-terror laws are currently under debate in parliament. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 Kalpakkam at Chennai (Madras) and BARC at Mumbai (Bombay) are the two main strategic nuclear development centers in India. Kalpakkam has a reprocessing facility attached to it and probably fabricates weapon pits. Chennai: The declaration of a no-fly zone above Kalpakkam up to an altitude of 10,000 feet and within a radius of 10 km comes as no surprise to the strategic community, as the key atomic energy installation has been identified by India as a non-civilian facility and will, therefore, not open for international safeguards. In both the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement signed with the United States and the safeguards agreement it entered into with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), India has agreed to separate its facilities into civilian installations and military or strategic ones. The civilian facilities alone will come under international safeguards and be open to inspections. While identifying 14 thermal reactors offered for IAEA safeguards between 2006 and 2014, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had specifically ruled out opening up the facilities in Kalpakkam, about 80 km from here, where the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research is located. "India is not in a position to accept safeguards on the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) and the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR), both located at Kalpakkam. The fast breeder programme is at the R & D stage and its technology will take time to mature and reach an advanced stage of development," said his statement on the implementation of India's separation plan as envisaged in the Indo-US joint statement of July 18, 2005. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-12-18 15:40 |
| #1 Only a real moron would attack a nu--mmmm, nevermind. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-12-18 14:25 |