Indo-US Nuclear Collaboration: Key Legal and Strategic Issues

The discourse on strengthening Indo-US nuclear collaboration highlights two principal legal impediments, each from the American and Indian contexts, impacting potential partnerships in nuclear energy development.

Legal Barriers

• American Side - ‘10CFR810’ Authorisation:
  • This regulation allows US nuclear vendors to export equipment to countries including India under strict safeguards.
  • It prohibits the manufacturing of nuclear equipment or performing nuclear design work in India.
  • This is a significant hindrance from India's viewpoint, which aims to engage in the manufacturing value chain for jointly planned atomic power projects.
• Indian Side - Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010:
  • Creates a mechanism for compensating nuclear accident victims and allocates liability.
  • Foreign companies like GE-Hitachi, Westinghouse, and Orano view this as a barrier, citing the channeling of operator liability to equipment suppliers as a major concern.

Strategic Initiatives and Opportunities

• US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET):
  • Aims to address concerns on both sides to enable jointly manufactured nuclear components for new projects in India using American reactors.
• India's Position:
  • India is positioning itself as a credible hub for manufacturing nuclear reactors, especially small modular reactors (SMRs) with capacities between 30MWe and 300MWe.
• Global Context:
  • China is also advancing in the SMR space for global leadership, using it as a diplomatic tool in the Global South.

Technological and Collaborative Aspects

• India's Current Reactor Technology:
  • India's expertise lies in manufacturing 220MWe PHWRs, which rely on heavy water and natural uranium.
  • These are becoming less aligned with the globally dominant light water reactors (LWRs).
• Collaborative Opportunities:
  • Partnerships with the US could be mutually beneficial, considering India's tech constraints and the US's high labor costs and protectionist trends.

Deciphering Ancient Scripts

The process to decipher a script involves several methodical steps as outlined by Italian philologist Fabio Tamburini in 2023:

• Identifying a Writing System: Determining if a set of symbols constitutes a legitimate writing system.
• Isolating Symbols: Developing procedures to segment the stream of symbols into individual signs.
• Reducing to Minimal Set: Identifying all allographs to reduce the signs to a minimal set, which forms the script's alphabet or inventory.
• Assigning Values: Allocating specific phonetic or other values to each symbol.
• Language Matching: Attempting to match these values to a specific language.

Challenges with the Indus Script

Scholars have faced significant challenges in deciphering the Indus script due to several factors:

• No Multilingual Inscriptions: Unlike the Rosetta Stone, no multilingual inscriptions have been found to facilitate direct comparisons with known scripts. The Indus Valley Civilization traded with Mesopotamia, but no bilingual records have been discovered.
• Unknown Language: According to Andrew Robinson, undeciphered scripts can be categorized as: 
  • Unknown script writing a known language.
  • Known script writing an unknown language.
  • Unknown script writing an unknown language, which is the most difficult category, and where the Indus script fits.
• Scholars have not reached a consensus on which language the Indus script represents.
• Lack of Material Evidence: Around 3,500 seals have been found, but each contains only a few characters, providing limited material for analysis. Additionally, the Indus Valley Civilization is less understood compared to Mesopotamia and Egypt, with many sites unexplored.

This paucity of information presents a challenge, necessitating more archaeological work to aid philologists, epigraphists, and linguists in understanding the Indus script.