Can we afford to have separate civilian and military facilities in the nuclear field?
What I am saying is this: in identifying civilian nuclear facilities, we have to determine that they are of no national security significance. We will do this in a phased manner. It is not a one-time determination. It will be determined at different points of time, looking at the national requirements, which exist from time to time. The point I am making is that this does not put any limitation on our ability to meet the national security needs. Will putting our civilian nuclear facilities under safeguards cap our nuclear weapons programme because the spent uranium can no longer be enriched for making bombs? I am telling you it is not there. The important point to recognise is that our energy requirements are very large. We have a three-stage nuclear power programme. In that, we have said that based on the natural uranium available in the country, we can support 10,000 MWe of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs). Beyond that, we will continue to grow on the basis of Fast Breeder Re
