Atomic agency hails US-India deal (IAEA and ElBaradei Support the Nuclear Deal!!)

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has welcomed a nuclear agreement between the US and India.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief (IAEA) Mohammed ElBaradei said it would boost non-proliferation efforts.

The UK and France also hailed the deal. But it was criticised by some members of the US Congress, who said it would lead to the spread of nuclear weapons.

Under the accord, India gets access to US civil nuclear technology and opens its nuclear facilities to inspection.

US President George W Bush - who finalised the agreement with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi - called it "historic".

However, Mr Bush admitted it might be hard to get it through the US Congress, which must ratify it.

The BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington says Mr Bush has a fight on his hands, after being accused of sending out the wrong signal just as America and its allies try to limit Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"And then there are 'allies' where public sentiment is so strongly anti-America, makes one wanna puke. Lez talk Saudi, Pakistan, Turkey etc"

Well they are not real allies. Their governments are allied with us to further the interests (often divergent) of both countries.

Turkey, for example. We needed them in the Cold War to station nukes against the Soviets. They needed us to protect them from Iran and the USSR.

Pakistan is not an ally at all, we just basically used them for basing rights, etc in the WOT.

Aside from Musharaff, all of Pakistan hates America. Musharaff dies (which isnt all that far-fetched) and Pakistan could become another Iran.

Except with nukes. And modern submarines.

As for public opinion in Europe, the Europeans dont hate America, but some of them loath America's policies.

Again though, much of the information that says Europe hates America comes from liberal polls and such.

There is a very vocal group of America-bashers in Europe, just as the Kerry supporters out-shouted the Bush supporters before the US election.

But then the silent majority spoke, and the leftists were trounced.

Italy is controlled by a government that is in some ways more conservative than the Bush administration (Burlusconi favors an all-out ban on abortion and once said that "Islamic culture is inferior to Western culture").

In Germany, the conservatives won the last election. Denmark is pretty conservative and pro-American, and have troops in Iraq.

I'm tired of listening to the lying reporters in the MSM like the NY Times tell us how much the rest of the world hates us.

Europeans may disagree with some US policies, but they respect America, and like it.

I know this because I live right near NYC in New Jersey, and I'm often when in NYC i meet tourists from Europe.

My Uncle is also German (he came here from Germany, and his brother still lives there) and he tells me that germany is still a pretty conservative country at heart, and is still pro-US.

Schroder the leftist wacko lost the last election, remember.

When I visited the Netherlands recently, people didnt seem anti-US either. Actually, I think that they are waking up to the danger of Islam.

I was heartened to hear that after Theo Van Gogh was killed, a couple of mosques were Molotov-cocktailed...evil grin..>:-)

Thanks for the ping indcons.

well, now that the IAEA has Ok'd the deal, it seems that only the Nuclear Supplier Group has to (that should be easy) as well as the US Congress.

The article said that multiple congresspeople opposed the deal, but so far the only one I have heard about who opposes it is Edward Markey (Communist-Massachusetts) who is considered far out of the mainstream.

I bet Markey's on the phone right now. "Yes, Mr. Jaibao, you can deposit that 50 million yuan into my numbered Credit Suisse account."

No.

But it is very much on the cards. If Thorium can be processed into Plutonium in the first stage of the fast breeder reactor, then India'll have enough nuke fuel to last centuries. For eveybody. Short of nuclear fusion, this represents one of the best possibilities for clean nuke power.

If India makes a breakthrough here (and they're fairly advanced in that direction, there're 3 FBR prototypes in operation and a 4th in construction), we'll be watching ...heh, heh.

NOBODY has nuclear fusion.

The brains that be claim clean unlimited power (thats the essential promise of fusion tech - the process that powers the sun is recreated and controlled here on Earth...if ya ask me, this is what I call playing God) is somewhere between 20-50 yrs away.

The Joint European Torus (JET) is a $50 billion geneva based fusion research project thats so far gone nowhere. The US and Japan have been long planning to setup and pursue their own fusion solution. The Chinese and the Russians have been flirting with setting up a joint project as well. Methinks India fits in well with the US here.

Thats precisely the problem.

Nobody's yet figured out how to control the chain reaction from going runaway.

Another major technical difficulty has been that there's no 'container' that can hold or contain the ionized hydrogen nuclei anymore. Even magnetic fields breakdown at those physical extremes (we're talking 10 million kelvin - the temp at which the strong nuclear force breaks down). In the sun's case (and that of all stars) its gravity that holds the continuos nuke explosion in one place but how dya do that here on earth??

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.