I am back, but trying to figure out WTF I’m doing in my new job. So this blog will suck some more for a bit. Sorry.

Meantime, Dan Horner has a great story in _Nuclear Fuel_ (sub. req., sorry) about the US-India 123 agreement. After providing a lot of good details, he concludes by saying that the agreement itself may be irrelevant:

But the House aide said the specific provisions of the 123 agreement may turn out to be relatively unimportant. The
“great prize” for India is “unlocking” the Nuclear Suppliers
Group, he said, and the 123 agreement is important because
NSG members said they would not take up India’s case until
the bilateral pact had been negotiated. But once New Delhi
secures the NSG’s approval to trade with the group’s members,
India is more likely to turn to Russia or France for its
nuclear needs, because those countries do not have national
legislation that imposes all the requirements the US Atomic
Energy Act does, the aide said.

Another colleague also pointed this out to me not long after the 123 agreement was concluded. He added that the provisions that, at least in principle, allow India to conduct long-term reprocessing could also help pave the way for New Delhi to get similar concessions from other countries.

Here’s one of Boston’s finest to keep you entertained…