Mumbai: Ahead of the US Congress meet to work out a legislation for implementing the Indo-US nuclear deal, India today sent out a firm signal to Washington that it will be 'difficult' to go ahead with multi-billion dollar business with American nuclear companies if all its concerns were not addressed.

"I have made it clear to them that unless all India concerns are taken care of in the final draft, it is difficult to carry out the multi-billion dollar business with nuclear companies and vendors," Anil Kakodkar, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission said after a meeting with a five-member US nuclear business delegation led by Under Secretary International Trade Franklin L Lavin.

"With the Tarapur experience in mind, I told the business delegation that we do not want the repeat of the same. Since section 114 which was brought out on the November 16 Bill, it is clear that there is some contradiction between the multi- layer fuel supply and the proposed separation plan," he said.

The very basis of accepting additional protocol and India specific safeguards in perpetuity was on the clear cut assurances made in the July 18 statement.

"I have told Lavin that any deviation from that would be a problem to deal with nuclear power business with US." With so many restrictions including the 'reasonable' fuel supply, intrusive inspection by the three intelligence agencies, the entire process will be well beyond the scope of civilian nuclear cooperation, he said.

Kakodkar also asked Lavin to make clear about the fate of 'spent fuel' from the proposed reactors as India does not want any ambiguity on that account this was also based on the Tarapur-US experience.

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