How Safe Are India's Nuclear Reactors? What Global Watchdog Chief Replied

India's nuclear reactors are "absolutely safe" as it applies the highest levels of safety standards to its civil nuclear programme, the chief of global nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has told NDTV.

In an interview on the sidelines of Davos 2025, IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi was asked how safe India's nuclear reactors are. ''Absolutely safe. India applies to its civilian nuclear programme the highest levels of internationally agreed and IAEA established nuclear safety standards and security guidance,'' he replied.

On India's fast-breeder nuclear reactor programme, the first of which is being developed at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, Grossi said, "It could be an interesting add-on to its fleet."

India has imposed a voluntarily moratorium on nuclear explosive testing since the Pokhran tests in 1998. Asked if New Delhi would be within its rights to test if China or Pakistan went ahead with nuclear tests, Gross replied, ''Our position and the position of the international community is that we should move to a general ban on nuclear testing so we hope that there won't be a need for further testing, neither in the subcontinent nor elsewhere.''

To a question on whether India should be a part of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which currently has 48 countries as its members, the IAEA chief said, ''I have been President of the Nuclear Suppliers group and I interacted very actively in trying to bring this to an equitable solution, including with other countries which had similar aspirations. My interactions, even with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, were extremely useful. We were very close at the time to a good outcome."

"Of course, there is a bigger, wider political scene which enters into the situation when it comes to that. This is for the members to decide," he added.

To a question on whether the India-US civil nuclear deal is set to achieve its full potential as Washington DC tries to negotiate the liability clause that will enable it to build reactors in India, Grossi said it was for India and US to decide. What I can say is that the Indian civil nuclear programme is among the biggest and most diverse worldwide. "India has every [nuclear] technology and masters every technology in a very good way. I believe that with the current expansion and interest in nuclear energy, we are the best position to see those levels of cooperation and trade grow,'' he said.

The IAEA chief also took questions on the situation in Ukraine and said there were several occasions when the watchdog feared a nuclear accident. "Zaporizhzia is right in the middle, on the frontline, extremely fragile. It has been subject to shelling, and more frequently, blackouts. This means loss of cooling function might have led to a nuclear accident. We are counting it by the day when we have situations like this. It is one of the biggest challenges that IAEA faces," he said.

On the West Asia situation, Grossi said that while the nuclear watchdog does not have any evidence that Iran is building a nuclear weapon, it has accumulated vast levels of enriched Uranium which is "very, very close" to weapon-level grade. He also said the IAEA have not received Tehran's full cooperation in inspections and in clarifying its questions.