Washington (Platts)--27Jul2007

The US and India formally announced July 27 they had reached accord on an
agreement for nuclear cooperation, breaking a long-standing logjam on one of
the steps needed to lift international nuclear trade restrictions on India.   
  One of the most difficult issues in the negotiations had been the terms
under which India could reprocess US-origin spent fuel. In a July 27 briefing
in Washington, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas
Burns said a key step in resolving that issue was a plan for India to build a
reprocessing plant dedicated to handling the material produced by reactors
India has designated as civilian. India also has a military nuclear program,
and one of the preconditions for cooperation with the US was that New Delhi
separate its civilian reactors from its military ones. The agreement also
envisions US long-term "programmatic" consent for Indian reprocessing, in
connection with the startup of the dedicated facility.