World

Canada to supply uranium to India

Published April 13, 2013 Updated April 13, 2013 07:57am

NEW DELHI: Around 40 years after India used plutonium from a Canadian heavy water reactor to carry out its first nuclear test in defiance of world opinion, Ottawa is set to resume nuclear trade with New Delhi.

Earlier this week, India and Canada vaulted the final hurdle in dismantling sanctions imposed after the Pokhran I test by signing an Appropriate Arrangement Agreement (AAA) that will allow Canada to ship uranium to India.

The agreement was signed between the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and India's Department of Atomic Energy. Canada is home to the second most significant uranium mining industry in the world after Kazakhstan.

France and Russia have supplied some quantities of uranium, but Canada did not after the nuclear embargo imposed by the developed world on India. An agreement with Australia has been inked, but a safeguards framework is still being negotiated.