At a time when the country is divided over the Indo-Us Nuclear Deal, three prominent nuclear scientists have urged the government not to go ahead with the controversial deal.

Former chairman of Atomic  Energy Commission Dr. P K Iyengar, former chairman of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board Dr A Gopalakrishnan and former director of Bhabha Atomic Research Center Dr.A.N. Prasad say that there is a great  deal of disquiet among the scientific community at large about the deal.

They also said they had met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier and discussed about the after-effects of the deal, besides writing to the MPS.

The scientists say the government should  not proceed to  seek  IAEA board approval  for the current draft safeguards agreement until  its  implications are debated completely the country.

Disputing the government''s claim about the energy security aspect if the deal is signed, the scientists say it has been quantitatively shown that the additional power will come at a much higher cost per unit of electricity compared  to the conventional coal  or  hydro  power, which India can generate without any foreign imports.  
 
In a release, the scientists argue about the repercussions of the nuclear deal.

Here are the excerpts:

"Once  the  deal is  in  place, it is also clear that India's commercial nuclear  interactions  with  the US as  well  as  with  any  other  country will  be  firmly  controlled  from  Washington  via  the stipulations  of  the  Hyde  Act  2006  enforced  through  the stranglehold  which  the  US  retains  on  the  Nuclear  Suppliers Group.

Any  argument  to  the  effect  that  the  deal  will  be  governed only  by  the  bilateral  123  Agreement  is  untenable , because  this Agreement  in  turn  is  anchored  in  US  domestic  laws , which include   the  Hyde  Act .  And  , the  Hyde  Act  contains  several  stipulations  which  are  extraneous  to  the  issue  of  bilateral  nuclear  co-operation , including  foreign  policy  behaviour which  India  needs to  adhere  to if  the  deal  is  to  be  kept  alive.

The  real  issue  facing  India , therefore ,  is  whether  or  not  we  want  this  mythical  extra 'energy security '  through  this  de